Commercial Projects

China firm to Build Sh3.6bn African Court in Arusha

The complex will provide a permanent seat for the court in Arusha.

Updated on

June 16, 2023

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.

The African Court on Human and People’s Rights, which was founded in 1998, moved its permanent seat from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Arusha in 2007.

The court has been a tenant in the Tanzania National Parks’ office complex.

Chinese contractors have recently emerged as the dominant players in the African construction sector, winning half of all mega infrastructure projects on the continent.

This is a far cry from the 1990s when firms from America and Europe took more than 85% of all major construction works on the continent.

The growing Chinese influence on the continent can be attributed to increased funding for infrastructure projects by the Asian nation.

China invested a cumulative total of $31 billion in African infrastructure between 2007 and 2020, according to the Centre for Global Development.

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.

Competitive pricing strategies, remarkable speed of project delivery, and ability to offer attractive package deals have also helped in propelling the Chinese into the dominant position in the African construction market.

However, recently, several Chinese construction companies have been accused of securing contracts in Africa through corrupt practices.

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.