Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve investment hits K10.5bn
African Parks has disclosed that it has invested $14 million (K10.5 billion) into Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve (NWR) as it bids to turn the entity into one of the country’s biggest tourism revenue generators.
NWR manager Samuel Kamoto disclosed this during a media tour of the reserve the African Parks organised in conjunction with the Association of Environmental Journalists.
He said the $10 million investment was spread across five years starting from 2015 when the government granted it a 20-year concession to manage the reserve.
Kamoto said the investment was injected into construction of an electric fence, access roads, offices, workers houses and environmental education center among other areas.
“We have constructed a 100 kilometre road network, we have brought in about 500 elephants and 2 000 other speeches and the 300 kilometer fence to ensure the animals are protected,” he said.
Kamoto said Africa Parks will now focus the next five years on boosting tourism.
“Our first five years was about developing a product which would attract tourists. That included bringing in the animals and making sure we have the right buildings and roads.
“Now we want to focus on tourism. Tourism means facilities, amenities and advertising so that people know what is here,” he said.
Accommodation service providers that operate within the Reserve have also seen their businesses booming due to the upgrades.
Bua River Lodge manager Mike Greiling in an interview said: “Our business has steadily been growing due to increased animal population and improved road network. The only challenge this year has been the Covid-19.”
Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve is the oldest and largest reserve stretching to 1 800 square kilometre.
Its main attractive animals were elephants whose population was around 1 500. However, years of heavy poaching reduced the elephants to 100 and that affected tourism revenue.
According to Kamoto, in 2014 the park generated K300 000. A year later under African Parks management the annual earnings increased to over K10 million.
