AICC to construct centre in Dodoma

Arusha. The Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) plans to construct a convention centre in Dodoma to cater for increased clientele.

The proposed facility will have a top end hotel, which would target conference delegates and business visitors.

“Establishment of a convention hotel is among the projects we are pursuing,” said a report presented during the recently held annual general meeting of the AICC workers.

Senior government officials of the government-owned centre have been to Dodoma to look for a suitable site where to construct the facility.

“Discussions between the AICC and Dodoma city authorities have been going on. They have mainly centred on the cost of the proposed plot, but no conclusive decision has been made,” one official affirmed.

Dodoma, the country’s capital city, has seen increased visitors and new settlers since the government announced in July 2016 a plan to effectively make it the capital of Tanzania.

The grand plans of capital shift from Dar es Salaam mulled by the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere since the early 1970s, have not worked as anticipated.

Nevertheless, the proposed capital has been hosting parliamentary sessions and headquarters of the ministry responsible for Regional Administration and Local Government (Tamisemi) since the 1990s.

Details of the proposed convention centre in the new capital like the cost and implementation time frame, could not be obtained, but officials confirmed it was one of the new projects “still being pursued”.

AICC, which runs the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam, early last year announced plans to have similar facilities in Mwanza and Iringa. Other projects still on the cards include establishment of the Mt Kilimanjaro International Convention Centre (MK-ICC) in Arusha and a shopping mall at Kaloleni, which is also located in Arusha.

The proposed new convention centre in the country’s safari capital had been estimated to cost a whooping $206 million (approximately Sh470 billion) with 23 acres already set aside in the Themi area.

MK-ICC was planned about a decade ago when Arusha was riding high in the conference tourism business, hosting numerous international, regional and local conferences.

AICC, which was established in 1978, took over the properties of the former East African Community (EAC), which collapsed in 1977. It is the leading landlord in Arusha.