Commercial Projects
China firm to Build Sh3.6bn African Court in Arusha
The complex will provide a permanent seat for the court in Arusha.
Chinese firm CRJE has been hired to build the African Court on Human and People’s Rights headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, in a $25.79 million (Sh3.6 billion) deal that provides a permanent seat for the court in the city.
According to the agreement, Tanzania will contribute $3.7 million (Sh476 million) with additional funds coming from partner states.
The new headquarters will sit on 24 hectares of land provided by Tanzania in the Laki Laki area on the outskirts of Arusha.
It will be located near the UN Mechanism for International Tribunals (formerly the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) buildings.
CRJE is expected to complete the project in two years, which will allow the African Court to transition from being a tenant to becoming a landlord.
The African Court on Human and People’s Rights, founded in 1998, relocated its permanent seat from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Arusha in 2007.
The court has been a tenant in the Tanzania National Parks’ office complex.
In recent years, Chinese contractors have emerged as dominant players in the African construction sector, winning half of all mega contracts on the continent.
This is a stark contrast to the 1990s when American and European companies secured more than 85% of construction projects on the continent.
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The rise of Chinese influence can be attributed to several factors, including increased funding for infrastructure projects led by China.
According to the Centre for Global Development, China invested a cumulative total of $31 billion in African infrastructure between 2007 and 2020.
In 2019, China financed one out of every five projects in Africa, trailing closely behind African governments themselves, according to Deloitte.
In 2020, the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University estimated the annual revenues of Chinese contractors in Africa to be $38 billion, accounting for 24.6% of their global revenues.
Other factors that have propelled the Chinese dominant position on the African construction market include their competitive pricing strategies, remarkable speed of project delivery, and their ability to offer attractive package deals.
However, in recent years, a number of Chinese construction companies have faced allegations of winning contracts on the African continent through corrupt means.
China State Construction Engineering Corp. and China Road 7 Bridge Construction are, for example, currently facing corruption charges in Kenyan courts.
The Chinese have also faced accusations of causing significant environmental damage through their construction projects and industrial activities.
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