Boston Partners, the Ethiopian company known for building Kuriftu-branded resorts, is to construct a new resort on Moucha Island – off the coast of the Republic of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa – in an attempt to establish the Kuriftu brand in east Africa.

In December 2013, Kuriftu signed a 50-year lease for 500,000sq m (5,381,955sq ft) of land on the coral island Moucha. It hired Eyasu Siraj, a consulting architect, to design the US$7m (€6m, £4.6m) resort, which will eventually employ more than 200 people when it opens in 2016.

Boston Partners, which wants to expand into every African country, concluded a US$50m deal with US-based company Fairfax Africa Fund in August 2012 to pursue this goal. The agreement was focused on helping Boston Partners build, own and operate several hotels and resorts in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Djibouti.

The resort on Moucha will have 30 presidential suites, two villas and 120 bedrooms, in addition to a full spa service, one restaurant, a conference room, an outdoor cinema, wedding gazebo, two swimming pools and a children’s playground.

Construction has begun using prefabricated material from Bali Prefab World, an Indonesian firm that designs and builds hardwood prefab houses, up-market homes, villas and bungalows.

Solar generation and a water treatment solution will be developed by Boston Partners for the property, since Moucha Island does not have infrastructure that connects it with other areas of the country.

This will be the first Kuriftu-branded resort and spa outside Ethiopia owned by Boston Partners’ founder and entrepreneur Tadiwos Belete. Boston Partners has six resorts in various parts of Ethiopia, including Addis Ababa, Debre Zeit, Bahir Dar, Burayu, Adama and Ziway.

The architect Eyasu Siraj is also designing Kuriftu’s Burayu Resort & Spa in the Oromia region of Ethiopia and the Geralta Resort & Spa in the region of Tigray.