‘BPOPF hotel project to empower locals’

Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF) Chief Executive, Boitumelo Molefe this week disclosed that the multimillion Pula Hilton Garden Inn Hotel project will drive citizen economic empowerment.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, Molefe said the Hilton Hotel project will seek to contribute to economic empowerment by way of engaging locals at all the stages of the project. This includes management control and preferential procurement “With like-minded entities we believe that we can generate profitable projects for our members,” said Molefe.   

The BPOPF boss said the project team has exciting events ahead such as the artwork competition, which has been opened to local artists as well as a future viewing of a mock-up room. “The local economy has shown growth and we believe that as the private sector we should lead in economic growth by coming up with innovative investments, especially in the infrastructure space,” said,” Molefe. The project was until this week under the care of Fleming Asset Management at a cost of P300million.  However, Molefe said Fleming was expected to have handed the project to Messidor this week.

“We have been working with Fleming on transitioning the development of the Hilton to our Property Manager Messidor. This is a critical and large project and it was critical that the transition is as smooth as possible Messidor is now working with us and we hope to build a very good property portfolio with them,” said Molefe.

She explained that the project team currently in place will not change; the only change will be the transition from Fleming to Messidor as a result of our termination of the Fleming mandates. Under its new project manager the fund has invested P1.5 billion.Hilton Garden Inn Gaborone will feature 150 guest rooms offering signature bedding, a health club and outdoor swimming pool as well as food and beverage options including an all-day dining restaurant, bar and 24-hour Pavilion Pantry.

The hotel, which is constructed at the new Central Business District (CBD) in Gaborone at a cost of P300 million, is expected to be in operation early 2018. BPOPF has also boosted its property portfolio after it bought two Francistown properties from PrimeTime for P71 million last year.

On other investments alternatives Molefe said investing in alternative investments to listed equities, bonds, property and other listed investments is progressing well. “We are currently drawing up the regulations that will define the detailed processes. The local economy has recently shown positive movement as a result of stimulation of the economy by Government,” she said.