Construction of Gasabo Shopping Mall, an ultra-modern facility in Kimironko, will start soon after a public limited company behind the project recently acquired the plot.

Gasabo Investment Company (GIC) had for sometime halted its development plans as it waited to acquire 22,000 square-metre chunk of prime land currently occupied by Kimirinko Market, bus park and Remera Police Station.

On December 16, the company parted with more than Rwf3 billion for the plot during a public auction.

According to Fabrice Shema Ngoga, the chairperson of the company, a general assembly scheduled for today will update shareholders and also chart a way forward.

"We now want to get final approval from the one stop centre about the master plan but we will first hold a general assembly on Monday [today] to update shareholders on the projects,” Ngoga told The New Times.

Last year, the number of GIC shareholders had more than doubled from 162 to 368, with about Rwf1.64 billion raised from share subscription, up from Rwf541 million collected before official launch in September 2013.

Ngoga said: "We will be developing the project in two phases and this is because there is a taxi park and market which must continue to be operational. We don’t want to disturb businesses as earlier agreed with the district.”

The firm intends to start, in phase one, by developing the area currently occupied by the police station (formerly occupied by Kimironko Health Centre) where a 32,000-square metre structure will be constructed to accommodate the market and other businesses.

"It will be a good start for the investors. And then we will be taking up the second phase afterwards as per timelines determined by the general assembly and our experts,” Ngoga said.

Being a public company, he said, people can still buy shares as the company still looks to increase its financial clout to implement phase one of the project.

Phase one is estimated to cost almost $27 million. The whole project, which has three phases, is estimated to cost $85 million.

The first phase entails construction of a modern market almost similar to Nyarugenge Market, but which will be bigger, with underground parking space for 400 cars and more organised market space.

"It will be connected to the bus terminal, a bus terminal which will have city buses and buses going to the provinces and beyond. It will be a terminal handling traffic of almost 85,000 people per day,” Ngoga said.

"It is three things in one. The mall, the bus terminal and the market. But we shall also have wings for offices and apartments.”

Share price to double

At the onset, a share cost Rwf10,000 with the minimum number of shares an investor can buy fixed at 100 – or Rwf1 million.

A general assembly held in September decided that starting January 1, one share would cost Rwf20,000.

Kimironko market has more than 2,000 vendors and many have since bought shares in the company.

In February, last year, Emmanuel Murangira, a consultant who worked on the project, told the general assembly that the project was viable, and had a high return on investment.

Earnings per share will quadruple within one year of full operation, he noted.

In the future, GIC plans to invest in low-cost housing with each unir costing between Rwf25 million and Rwf35 million.

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