Mzuzu University (MZUNI) has signed an agreement with African Growth Group Limited (AGGL) in a Public Private Partnership arrangement to construct and operate a 4700-bed capacity hostel valued at $47 million.

By

Cliff Kawanga

Mzuzu University (MZUNI) has signed an agreement with African Growth Group Limited (AGGL) in a Public Private Partnership arrangement to construct and operate a 4700-bed capacity hostel valued at $47 million.

In an interview on Friday, Vice-Chancellor Professor Wales Singini said most of the students reside off-campus and yet all the learning facilities including the library and internet facilities are within the campus.

“You would also notice that even out of the 850-bed capacity that is available, most of the hostels are prefabricated hostels which were constructed with a life span of five years but we have used them for more than 15 years, which means they were supposed to be replaced that is why this partnership is quite exciting,” he said.

AGGL Team Leader Patrick Uka said preliminary designs were already done highlighting that there will be 4500 double occupancy rooms to be constructed in a five-storey building, 200 single occupancy rooms, 20 self-contained single occupancy rooms and six villa apartments.

“We started this project in 2020 and it has been a long way and there were a lot of hurdles throughout. But you see we came together as Malawians to say foreigners come to invest so we said why can’t Malawians bring an initiative and attract foreigners and help in the investment. So, it has not been simple… I would say we are getting the money from elsewhere, there are so many possibilities. There are so many people who are willing to finance this but were waiting for this agreement,” he said.

Patrick Kabambe, who is Chief Executive Officer for the Public Private Partnership Commission, said the fiscal space in the national budget is getting smaller, so as space in public universities hence the need to have more investors.

Kabambe said the new investors in public universities in infrastructure development will give room to the institutions to concentrate on education delivery.

AGGL is a special purpose vehicle mandated to run the project which includes Future Life Africa Limited and other financiers who have come together as a joint venture.

Accommodation remains a huge challenge at MZUNI with only 850 students accommodated at the campus which represents only 10 percent coverage of the 8,500 students registered.

The construction of the hostels will commence next year, a project to be completed in the next three years. According to the agreement the group will run the hostel for 35 years after which it will be transferred to the university.