By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –
THE Zambia National Building Society (ZNBS) central arcades re-development project is almost complete and shops have been handed over to tenants to fix the fittings.
National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) acting investment director Dorothy Soko said the project was progressing well and that the Authority was hopeful that the hotel would be operational by December this year.
The project involves the construction of a five-star hotel, office building and shops.
“On the ZNBS project, I think we are progressing well and we are handing over the shops to the tenants to do the fit outs.
“We expect that by December the hotel should be operational or at least the fit outs will be completed,” she said.
In terms of the retail shops,  Ms Soko said between now and December, it was expected that a lot of activities would be seen in terms of shops opening, but that for now the tenants were doing the fit outs in readiness for the opening of the mall.
And Ms Soko said NAPSA was in the process of revising its investment guidelines, but was currently waiting for the Statutory Instrument (SI) before it could proceed.
In terms of investment, NAPSA has assorted asset classes as allowed in the investment guidelines which include real estate and shares in listed companies.
NAPSA has also invested in fixed income securities comprising Government bonds, corporate bonds and fixed-term deposits.
“Currently, we are in the process of revising our investment guidelines. We are actually waiting for the SI to come. We have included other asset classes in order to broaden our investment horizon.
“We have included asset classes such as infrastructure, private equity, and collective investment schemes so that we are able to participate in a broader way and include asset classes such as energy, private public partnership, and core investment which the current guidelines did not allow,” Ms Soko said.