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Business Reporter.
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board is raising $12 million required for the construction of its four storey office complex through mortgage finance and savings ahead of a targeted October completion.TIMB chief executive Mr Andrew Matibiri yesterday told The Herald Business that construction is progressing well according to plan although funding constraints remain the biggest challenge.

He said construction was 90 percent done and is expected to be complete next month.

“We are raising the finance required through bank loans, mortgage finance and from our own savings as a company. I am glad that we have made considerable progress towards the completion of the complex.

“Our contractor told us that the complex would be complete by October this year and what would be left are the civil works including roads among others,” said Mr Matibiri.

Mr Matibiri however could not divulge how much they have managed to mobilise and spent on the complex.

He said TIMB will let part of the building to interested tenants now that they have managed to construct two extra floors.

The board initially planned to invest $8,5 million for the construction but the figure has since increased to $12 million due to the additional floors.

“When we started, the idea was to build the basement only but after making consultations with our engineers we ended up coming up with a four storey building,” said Mr Matibiri.

He said the idea to start the construction came up in 1990 but due to the lack of funding, the project was put on hold and the board ended up using auction floors. Around 2010 TIMB started mobilising funds which enabled it to buy the land for the project.

Construction started in 2011 after the board secured some funding through mortgage finance.

More than 88 000 growers have registered compared to about 65 000 the same period last year forcing TIMB to require bigger working space.

“The issue of liquidity has been our biggest challenge since we have been using mortgage finance hence the reason why the project took long to complete,” he said.