Maihapa Ndjavera
WINDHOEK – Nedbank Namibia’s new Head Office will represent close to half a billion Namibian dollars in capital expenditure with building activities gobbling up close to N$700 000 daily during the construction period. Also, Nedbank decided to use only local procurement as a way to inject an elixir into the local economy.
The construction period is forecasted to be two-and-a-half years while employing 525 people. The state-of-the-art building will use more than 500 000 bricks, more than 13 500 cubic meters of Readymix concrete and over 1600 tonnes of reinforcing steel will form the backbone of the head office. The new building, to be constructed at Freedom Plaza in the heart of Windhoek’s central business district, will require the excavation of 68 000 cubic metres of soil.
At the ground-breaking ceremony on Friday, Managing Director of Nedbank Namibia, Lionel Matthews, said it was critical for the bank to construct and operate a building that is energy and resource efficient as well as environmentally responsible.
He added that the fruition of the new building is the culmination of intense work that the Nedbank team has been involved with for the last number of months. Mathews continued that having all of the Nedbank Namibia Windhoek based staff, working shoulder-to-shoulder towards achieving this singular quest of ours, will undoubtedly be the single most impactful outcome of the new Head Office.
Also attending the ground-breaking ceremony, Windhoek Mayor, Muesee Kazapua, said infrastructural developments of such a magnitude are testimony that Namibia’s investment policy and political atmosphere remains pivotal to economic development and job creation.
“I would like to once again commend Nedbank Namibia for their continuous contribution to our local development and towards our vision to be a smart caring city by 2022,” said Kazapua. He continued that the current challenging economic climate would normally result in organisations reducing their capital investment, but Nedbank Namibia continues to invest in Namibia with such certainty. This, said Kazapua, equally shows that Nedbank is confident in Namibia’s future.