‘Zanzibar Amber Resort’ the biggest resort in East African region – valued at U$1.6B – has kicked off construction again after five years of waiting. The facility is located in Matembwe coastal village, north of Unguja.
The first phase of construction is scheduled for completion by the end of 2022 according to Zanzibar Amber Resort Manager Murtaza Hassanal and the project director of the Pennyroyal (Gibraltar) limited Saleh Mohamed Said.
“We had unavoidable problems which contributed to the delay of the project. For example, we were supposed to get our lease in 2015, but it was not possible until late 2018,” Said explained.
The director said the first phase of this project includes the construction of a 5-star hotel with at least 50 rooms and a four-room presidential suite, recreational centre, golf course and 60 modern houses for sale in the area.
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The houses will be sold based on square metres and each square metre will cost U$1600, adding that the construction work has created about 700 employment opportunities.
“But it is unfortunate that most of the local youths or residents in the area shun manual work such as masonry,” he said.
The project also includes the construction of luxury villas, and that the total area of the project to be implemented in phases, measures 411 hectares.
”We have started receiving insufficient sand for the project. We requested for 15000 tonnes but we received 4000 tonnes on phase one,” he said.
