Zanzibar will in the next few years be home to a $1.3 billion (about Sh3 trillion) commercial tower that could change the face of the semi-autonomous Indian Ocean archipelago.

A joint venture of Tanzania's AICL Group and Edinburgh Crowland Management Ltd yesterday signed a contract with New York and Dubai-based architect xCassia that will see the latter come up with architectural designs for what will be the tallest building in eastern, central and southern Africa.

When completed, the 70-storey building will be the second tallest in Africa behind Iconic Tower in Egypt, which covers a total area of 65,000 square metres, with two underground floors and 78 floors above the ground.

Speaking during the signing ceremony, Zanzibar's Minister of State in the President's Office (Economy and Investment), Mr Mudrik Ramadhan Soraga, said the project was a big step towards building the isles' blue economy.

"Its implementation supports the government's efforts in inviting more local and foreign investors to the isles," he said.

Crowland Management Ltd CEO Emmanuel Umoh said the building, to be known as Zanzibar Domino Commercial Tower, is expected to be an iconic feature that will facilitate tourism and culture and offer business opportunities.

"The Zanzibar Domino is a unique project which is exceptionally well-suited to our investment philosophy of providing our investors with superior returns through exceptional schemes as well as strategic socioeconomic projects that leverage prosperity, people and the planet," he said.

According to the founder and design director of xCassia, Mr Jean-Paul Cassia, the idea to construct the building on a man-made island was a decade-long dream, and became a reality after a site and investors were found.

"First sketched in Paris in 2009 after my late father, two sons and I played a round of dominos, I dreamed of building this project for over a decade.

"Between its innate mathematical order and geometries found in nature, its pure lines and proportions that evoke growth, progress and freedom, it had all the bearings of an icon anyone could remember and draw on a paper napkin," he said.

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