At least 1,500 people will be able to get business space when the $30 million Champion Investment Corporation Complex (CHIC) is inaugurated by the end of this year in Kigali city centre.

Located in the outskirts of the Central Business District (CBD) in Nyarugenge District, CHIC is a joint partnership of private players, who pulled resources to put up the complex that has 1,500 rooms.

The complex is expected to cost $30 million (about Rwf22.2bn) after completion, according to Mohammed Mpazimaka, the secretary general of Chic corporation.

"It was our dream to have a better place to carry out our business. We came together as a group of business people in Kigali united by one challenge—shortage of good buildings to rent,” Mpazimaka said in an interview yesterday.

Champion Investment Corporation initially started with 72 members but the number has since reduced to 59 partners, according to the chairperson, Tharcisse Ngabonziza.

Ngabonziza, said the complex will provide for business rentals, supermarkets, office space and entertainment spots, among others.

"We are now at completion level; the  deadline was initially October, but it might take us two more months,” said Ngabonziza.

"We realised that most of the available business structures did not match with the national development agenda. So, we came together in search of a better working environment, but also to be part of the city’s development.”

Kigali city vice mayor in charge of finance and economic development, Alphonse Nizeyimana, said the complex would be completed within the agreed timeframe.

"This is an exciting stage basing on the timeline and the plan we had while giving them the plot of land on which to build. This is an assurance that by the end of this year, the building will be ready to receive tenants. It is a good structure that fits the city master plan,” said Nizeyimana.

The Chic complex comes at the opportune time, according to Nizeyimana, since the City of Kigali is due to demolish the old and substandard Quartier Matheus structures in a bid to revamp the Central Business District.

"We expect business people in Quartier Matheus to take up these available cottages, since we expect them to be cheap. That would, therefore, provide business people with options when the time comes to evacuate the congested and old buildings here or anywhere else,” he said.

Nizeyimana said the first batch of business people is expected to evacuate Quartier Matheus by December.

Chic complex is one of the several other complexes being set up in Kigali city by  private sector business people under cooperatives.

Next to CHIC is also another multimillion complex under construction by MIC cooperative.

Stephen Ruzibiza, the chief executive officer of Private Sector Federation, said such initiatives are as a result of government policy that has facilitated the flourishing of the private sector in the country.

Ruzibiza was earlier speaking at a roadshow organised by PSF in Kigali, yesterday. The roadshow was aimed at providing a roadmap for the private sector to become a driving force in the economic development of the country and the region.