In 2010, DN International, a real estate development company embarked on a project that would see the firm complete construction of over 50 residential housing units valued at Rwf75 million each. The new homeowners were promised to have their houses by the end of that year. However, this company’s project dubbed “Green Park Villas”, located in Gasabo District, was left incomplete and forced the owner, Nathan Lloyd, to flee the country in 2011. When the company folded, as a financier of the project, KCB seized the incomplete estate in an effort to recover over a loan worth Rwf1.5 billion the developer had taken to fund the estate. But the bank did not take care of paying those who supplied construction materials or the prospective homeowners who had made down payment on the houses. As a result, people who had delivered supplies or bought homes from the defunct DN International launched a lawsuit against the real estate developer in a case that was also drawn in Kenya Commercial Bank and Rwanda Development Board (RDB)seeking over Rwf780 million in compensation. Four years after KCB auctioned the land belonging to DN International to recover its fund, the Commercial High Court cancelled the auction after establishing that some homes that were auctioned were not part of the collateral the company had presented to the bank and that some rules on public auction were flouted. Earlier this year, the Commercial High Court resolved to liquidate DN International to be able to pay back the remaining creditors. Speaking to The New Times on Wednesday, July 29, the Insolvency Administrator for DN International, Vedaste Mugemanyi, noted that some processes went slowly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He said: “The liquidation ruling took place in February this year, but due to Covid-19, I was only given the copy to resolve the insolvency on July 22.” He added that: “What is being done now is the process of transferring the land ownership from KCB Bank to DN International. After that, we will do the valuation of the property and look for potential buyers.” Mugemanyi went on to say that he will afterwards hold a meeting with all creditors, including KCB, to assess the value of that wealth vis-à-vis the money they are owed. In case the value of that property is found to be less than the credit owed, then we will have no other option other than sharing among them the few that are available, he explained. After this process of liquidation, Mugemanyi is expected to write to the court requesting that the business is completely dissolved and even its name deleted from the Registrar’s book.
