The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has unveiled a Sh30 billion plan to build office blocks and luxury apartments in Nairobi’s central business district as the capital joins a growing number of towns where residents work and stay in the city centre.

The multi-billion shilling mixed development, comprising twin towers of 35 and 60 floors, will also hold conference and retail facilities and a hotel.

This will mark the return of the cash-rich NSSF to mega real estate projects, with the 60-storey tower set to be the tallest in Nairobi. It will also keep the city in line with the global resurgence in city-centre living as students and young professionals seek convenience and shorter commutes to their workplaces.

NSSF managing trustee and chief executive officer David Koross told the Business Daily on Thursday that the decision to include apartments in the development is part of the regeneration of the Nairobi CBD, which has suffered from an exodus of major businesses to other commercial nodes in recent years.

The NSSF is also seeking to unlock the value of its 3.85-acre idle land on Kenyatta Avenue, which it estimates at Sh4 billion. “We are also considering the idea of regenerating life in the city centre, and that’s why in that design we are doing apartments, to bring people to live in the CBD. In other places in the world, people are living within city centres,” said Mr Koross. “NSSF will be funding the project fully, over the next four years. We estimate its cost at Sh30 billion.” The Sh30 billion is a third of the Sh100 billion that NSSF will collect this year from members, riding on the higher contributions and underlines its funding war chest. Workers will pay up to Sh6,480 per month from Sh200 in 2022 starting February after the previous four annual reviews. While living within city centres is common in other countries, Nairobi has not seen developers setting up apartment units within the CBD, which is predominantly left to offices, business outlets and government facilities. Other key commercial hubs such as Westlands and Upper Hill, however, have a sizeable supply of modern apartments, which has helped attract corporates that factor in convenience for staff in picking office location. A lack of sizeable and readily available land holdings within the CBD has partially contributed to the shift to other hubs.

In cities such as Addis Ababa, Luanda, Tokyo, Manila and Shanghai, there is a sizeable portion of the population that lives and works within city centres under mixed-use zoning systems that incorporate high-rise residential buildings within their business districts. Urban planners are also shifting to hybrid developments that combine residential, co-working and entertainment facilities, mainly to cater for young professionals under what is known as a “15-minute-city concept” that shortens commutes between the various spots and reduces the carbon footprint of residents. The growth of serviced apartments and other short-stay platforms such as Airbnb has also supported city centre residential property development, targeting tourists, conferences and transit passengers. At 3.85 acres, the NSSF plot is one of the largest undeveloped parcels of land in the CBD, a fact that has in the past attracted purchase bids from private firms and ownership intrigues. The much-coveted plot was previously used as a makeshift car park. In the late 2000s, billionaire Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani had planned to buy the plot for Sh1.3 billion, but later pulled out of the deal after it emerged that the land was smaller than what was indicated on the title deed. He planned to build a 21-storey hotel on the property, but later built Delta House in Westlands after the collapse of the deal. The land was also the subject of several investment proposals by investors and wheeler-dealers in the Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi administrations. Several parties, including the Kenya Tourist Development Corporation, hospitality chain Holiday Inn, Japan’s Chori and the Ataka Group, were among those fronted by the fixers as potential developers on the land. The decision by the NSSF to put up the new towers will now draw a line under the decades-long pursuit of the land by powerful actors. The development will also mark a return to large-scale property projects that once dominated the State-controlled fund’s assets portfolio. The fund has in recent year diversified to other asset classes, opening a headroom to make fresh property bets without risking a breach of Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) rules that cap real estate exposure at 30 percent of total assets. In the year to June 2025, the fund held immovable property worth Sh35.45 billion on its books, accounting for 6.35 percent of its total investment assets of Sh558.05 billion. Five years ago, the fund’s property holdings worth Sh43.3 billion accounted for 18 percent of its total investment assets. Bonds and listed stocks account for the largest shares of NSSF investment assets at 69.83 percent or Sh389.67 billion and 15.26 percent or 85.13 billion, respectively, with property a distant third. Other significant asset classes are fixed cash deposits at Sh13.35 billion (2.39 percent) and private equity investments at Sh7.29 billion (1.31 percent). In terms of annual asset value growth, property lagged behind bonds and equities in the year to June 2025, showing the effect of idle property holdings such as the Kenyatta Avenue land. The value of the NSSF’s property holdings only rose marginally from Sh35.39 billion to Sh35.45 billion in the period, in contrast to bonds (including Eurobonds) whose valuation rose to Sh389.68 billion from Sh260.98 billion in June 2024. Equities, meanwhile, appreciated to Sh85.14 billion from Sh61.19 billion in valuation. Some of the growth was attributable to additional investments in the period at a time when the fund’s collections have gone up after the implementation of the NSSF Act 2013 from February 2023.

cmwaniki@ke.nationmedia.com