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Traders operating in the building told journalists in Dar es Salam yesterday that the DCC had decided to sell the building after it had failed to clear the debt it owed National Social Security Fund (NSSF).
DCC was required to repay the debt which plus interest had accumulated to 12/-bn/- to NSSF for ten years.
Machinga Complex traders’ Vice chairman Gerald Mpangama said DCC borrowed 12bn/- from NSSF to construct the building and repay the money in a period of ten years.
He noted that the debts had now shot to 34bn/- and no efforts had been made by the DCC to clear the debts in time.
Mpangama further said the plan of selling the building was one of the agenda of DCC Board which met recently and the process was underway.
He said despite the plan to hire the third to fifth floors of the building so as to increase revenue collection, the DCC had failed to meet the target of collecting 1.1b/- annually.“Traders are not ready to see their property being sold to foreign investor…We are not ready to leave the building …it was built for us and we have been here for five years operating our businesses,” he said.
He said although DCC has failed to settle its debts but still it can negotiate with NSSF to find ways of clearing the debts instead of deciding to sell the building because the decision will affect majority of traders.
Traders however called upon President Jakaya Kikwete to intervene by assuring them whether they will continue operating in the building in his month end speech.
He noted that the DCC plan is against President Kikwete’s plan to ensure that all petty traders are accommodated in one building to easy revenue collection and create good environment for conducting businesses.
Contacted, DCC Director Wilson Kabwe dismissed the claims saying they are baseless.
Kebwe said that DCC is currently negotiating with NSSF on how it can clear the debt.
“All what the traders have claimed are just ‘rumors’ and we cannot work on them, DCC has no such plan of selling the building to the foreign investor,” he said.
In May, last year Machinga Complex management was expecting revenue collection of 1.1bn/- from only two floors of the building that are now open to let for middle class business persons.
The development comes soon after they opted to broaden their tenant scope to include stronger financial investors moving from their originally planned sole beneficiaries, petty traders, who were failing to meet the needed financial expectations.
To start with, they had begun renting out two of their top floors. The otherwise empty and idle 4th and 5th floors were projected to have the potential of amassing 1,108,500,000/- annually from the new tenants, middleclass business people.
Machinga Complex Manager Nyamsukula Masondole was keen to point out that not all the revenue would go towards settling the NSSF 12bn/- loan but also serve for regular operation costs.
According to the manager, the middleclass business persons had responded very positively and had already occupied most of the available spaces.
“They are turning up in big numbers…all kinds of businesses including some financial institutions…” he said.
“Unlike the ground floor all through to the third floor where small business people occupy the stalls, in the 4th and 5th floors the set up has been changed to fit the needs of the big businesses,” the manager went on to detail.
Recently, Dar es Salaam City Council Mayor Didas Masaburi said the city had borrowed 10/- billion from NSSF to construct the complex to reduce hawkers loitering in the city.
According to Mayor, Dar es Salaam is required to repay the debt which plus interest has accumulated to 12/- billion.
But, Masaburi explained that experts have advised them that the petty traders alone cannot sustainably and in a timely manner service the loan.
As a result, they decided to open up the 4th and 5th floors to medium businesses to collect enough funds for the smooth running of the multi-billion shillings facility and for the loan settlement.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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