Greater Fumba’s Mega Makeover

35,500-seat stadium, “Gucci mall”, and university reshape the peninsula

EXCLUSIVE  Zanzibar’s biggest public-private development is happening right now in Fumba. A soccer stadium, a high-end mall and other futuristic facilities are taking shape on the south-western peninsula. Mostly hidden from public view, the spectacular construction is bound to change the face of the island forever. THE FUMBA TIMES was granted an exclusive tour of the suburban mega project.

Explosions are heard day and night. Relentless drills penetrating coral rock land. But only the residents of nearby eco-city Fumba Town, a mixed development of residential and holiday houses, and Fumba’s fishermen witness the mysterious construction going on. On the rest of the island, in tourist hot spots along the east and north coast and even in Zanzibar City, most people are still unaware of the huge changes occurring on the south-west coast.

On the Fumba peninsula, marked as one of five Free Economic Zones on the archipelago, Zanzibar’s biggest public development ever is underway. 24/7 day-and-night construction has turned the formerly sleepy stretch between Fumba Town and Fumba Uptown into a dusty raging battlefield of cranes, bulldozers and trucks. When visiting the enormous building projects within the 3,000-hectare zone destined to become a “mixed leisure-sport-education and residential area” it feels like landing on the moon. Most bush cover has been stripped away leaving a barren desert of enormous proportions. Giant machinery monsters are crushing coral rocks to sand.

THE FUMBA TIMES was granted an exclusive tour of the ongoing mega development. We are accompanied by Khamis Dunia, 36, Director of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) at the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority (ZIPA), and his deputy Abu Bakar Maulid. Any foreigner investing in Zanzibar needs a green light from ZIPA, whether opening a hotel, leasing land or starting a manufacturing business. “Our free economic zones act as land banks for new developments”, Khamis Dunia explains to me while taking us around. Every few metres we stop to look at another new project; in about two hours we will have covered about a dozen of them.

At the heart of the development and in varying phases of construction are a 35,500-seat soccer stadium and two additional training facilities, each with a capacity of 15,000 seats; a government owned 400-bed hotel and a 40-bed “medical tourism” hospital are in planning nearby. A pier for a future ferry terminal to Dar – long discussed – is marked, but plans for the realisation “do not exist yet”, ZIPA concedes. In contrast, a huge mall the size of Fumba Town and a new campus for the renowned Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) are already taking shape, the latter visible with three-storey buildings along the Bakhresa Uptown highway entrance.

Two large blue signboards just after Fumba Town announce the “Continental Mall of Zanzibar” by “Wipi Group” which is surrounded by a several-kilometre-long corrugated- iron fence. The giant complex is developed by an unnamed US firm. Covering an enormous 59.5 hectares it will be “more Gucci than Michenzani”, we are told, with “the developer knowing best what brands and customers he wants to attract”, Khamis Dunia adds.

Next on the tour we discover a small oasis amid all the construction, the neat headquarters and workers’ village of Turkish construction company Orkun, the builders of new Fumba. The compound includes a water fountain and even a staff clinic. An informal shanty town with jua kali canteens and a double-storey shed in Rasta colours has sprung up nearby.

Football fever already!

Hardly a kilometre away, an impressive circle of rebar cages pointing fiercely towards the sky becomes visible, marking the position of the new Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) stadium. The stadium, which will be by far the biggest in Zanzibar,  has triggered all other activities here. It is built for the continent’s biggest football tournament to be held in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania in 2027. AFCON has been running since 1957. Zanzibar joined the contest last-minute as a host, and is now under enormous pressure to get the stadium ready. “2027 is our deadline for almost everything”, says Abu Bakar of ZIPA. This includes adjacent projects like a four-lane highway from Nyamanzi to the airport, part of a three-tier road network stretching to the southern tip of Fumba.

A new updated masterplan for Fumba is in the making, we are told, since the 110-page “Masterplan 2022-2042” has become largely obsolete with the new stadium. Even our small delegation struggled at some points to identify which building is planned where.

NEW MASTER PLAN FOR FUMBA IN THE MAKING

Another enterprise in the pipeline is a residential high-rise directly opposite Fumba Town by the Zanzibar Housing Corporation (ZHC) on 20 hectares, the ZIPA officials revealed. Plans for a large, luxurious beach residency complex in Bweleo have also just surfaced. Ideas for a futuristic office park called ‘Nyamanzi City’, however, appear to have been dropped, and there is presently no further talk about the Formula One dream (THE FUMBA TIMES reported in March 2024). Still reserved are spaces for a basketball training centre and a film studio.

Free Economic Zones were identified in 1992 in Zanzibar to attract foreign investment. With tax incentives and other benefits, they are intended to create economic growth beyond tourism. A football stadium, however, rarely generates but rather costs money – how does this add up? “The stadium may not generate significant revenue on its own”, says Khamis Dunia of ZIPA, an economist by profession, “but the broader economic impact will come from its surrounding services including hotels and housing developments.” While job creation and small-scale industrial development were early focal points of the ZIPA Special Economic Zone in Fumba, large-scale leisure and residential projects seem to have priority now.

Urban planners and private investors have repeatedly emphasised the importance of detailed spatial planning “to ensure long-term predictability for investors”, as Sebastian Dietzold, CEO of CPS Africa, has pointed out. This helps to ensure that different forms of development can coexist harmoniously. In one recent case, a villa retreat close to the new Fumba port was offered compensation after plans for surrounding industrial use evolved.

At least one project, already feared dead, could rise from the ashes – the much talked about “Cyber City”. Everyone’s hope here rests with the newly formed Ministry for Communication and Innovation to resurrect the cyber dreams –  and with them lots of job opportunities.