VICE President Guy Scott has said high interest rates in the country are preventing Zambians from investing and acquiring mortgages to construct houses.
He was speaking when he officially opened a three-day African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development, (AMCHUD) Southern African Sub-regional Conference held at Mulungushi conference center in Lusaka yesterday.
He said the interest rates were too high in the region but it was worse in Zambia thereby making it difficult for Zambians to invest.
“It is hardly surprising that we are short of 1.3m housing units in Zambia,” he said.
He said it was sad that most Zambians, including top government officials he worked with, were renting houses.
Dr Scott said Zambians had been subjected to high rentals and high mortgages but that the Government was determined to change the situation.
He urged the Ministry of Local Government and Housing to work with his office to assist sort out the problem of housing in Zambia.
Dr Scott said that Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) would also go a long way in assisting to address the lack of adequate housing in the country.
He however said the PPPs were also being affected by the fact that most Zambians had no ability to invest in the economy.
“Let us all work together in addressing the problem of urban housing, as a Government, if we can help, we want to help,” he said.
Earlier Local Government and Housing Minister Emerine Kabanshi said Government was currently considering the housing development policy of 1996 to improve housing.
She said Zambia was also working with UN Habitat to ensure sustainable human settlements.
Ms Kabanshi explained that the high levels of urbanization continued to be a challenge in achieving sustainable human settlements.
AMCHUD head of permanent secretariat Thomas Ogutu said regional African countries must work together to improve lives of people in slums.
UN HABITAT assistant secretary general Aisa Kacyira said human settlements were key to development for sustainable livelihoods.
“Africa is at crossroads and by 2050, most cities will double their population so it is important for us to start preparing now,” he said.
She pledged her organisation’s commitment to continue assisting Africa in its quest for sustainable housing to counter growing urbanization.
And what are the causes of high interest rates?
By any chance Government constant aggressive moping-up of liquidity in order to finance extra budgetary activities?
Or perhaps, BoZ incapability to formulate equitable and fair financial banking regulations?
Or, God forbid, Government unwillingness to investigate evident banking cartel “understanding”
There should not be any correlation between interest rates and mortgages
It is the earning power and salaries like mine, which negates any interest
Get better jobs people
Thanks
Webo Mushota, ni ndo kanshi. Ulapepa ibange ilikali sana? Kashindo kobe mwe!
Mushota! Kikiki
” VICE President Guy Scott has said high interest rates in the country are preventing Zambians from investing and acquiring mortgages to construct houses. ”
And…
” And what are the causes of high interest rates? By any chance Government constant aggressive moping-up of liquidity in order to finance extra budgetary activities? ”
And why is the goverment borrowing aggressively on the domestic markets?
Lack of taxation of the mines.
That is why they are borrowing, sending lending rates up for everyone. And remember, mining resource belong to the Zambian people colletively, in the first place.
It is a knock-on effect, but the basis is letting the mines get away with theft.
AND TO BORROW FROM BANKS GENERALLY.
WALASA, MUDALA
Haha,Guy Scott its pretty much what made me laugh at the thought of zambia hosting a conference on housing.The conference attendees will see that we’re no role model on housing.
I TOTALLY AGREE,BANKS ONLY GIVE LOANS TO RICH PEOPLE AND POOR ASS NIGGAS LIKE ME ALWAYS HAVE TO GET THE SCRAPS..KALOBA AND THAT KIND OF RUBBISH.BEEN LOOKING FOR A PLOT BUT MY 30,000 IS SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH…WHAT ABOUT BUILDING..THATS ALSO ANOTHER HUGE COST….KAYA KWAMENE TIYENDA.THE RICH WILL GET RICHER WOW THE POOR WILL REMAIN AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FOOD CHAIN.GOD HELP US!!
Your chances of success will increase when you stop referring to yourself as POOR ASS NIGGAS.
The other component of this non deterministic equation is the complexity of acquiring land to build on. While people may afford to build a house, the ease with which land can be acquired in urban areas is prohibitive. The land has been parceled up to cadres who then sell it on at unaffordable prices. Most of those shanties are an eye sore and inhibit proper growth of towns.
What a DULL muzungu!
It is the PF Government that is driving up interest rates by borrowing on the local market!
We now have people that are supposed to manage Zambias economy that do not even understand basic economics!
This Govt contradicts itself. In one breath, they start taxing mortgage interest and in one they are saying they are trying to find means of helping the Zambian. For a start, i would simply advise them to exclude mortgage interest when calculating PAYE. Its simple and practical. The Previous Govt had given that Benefit to the Zambian people.
Muzungu o pusa clueless chimbwis no plans.
What hopeless journalism. for reader benefits what are the current interest rates in the country? regional average ? or the person who put up this story is too lazy to find out ?
Spot on! !
Patrick,
I expected Scott to belch those numbers. He probably did but our journalist may have not understood their importance.
No wonder pipo are saying we are on auto pilot.Imagine what Scott is saying here and he is supposed to be one of the most enlightened of the lot.The question is what were the interest rates before September 2011?And why have they gone up?PF is purely to blame and from what we read here from their enligtened Scott.this problem is going nowhere.
What is the Vice President talking about? He seems to lack the understanding of Public Private partnership or private finance initiative is about. The arrangement is more costly than the government borrowing money from the banks at the current interest rates. PPP/PFI is where the consortium of private investors or organisations where they fund public capital projects like building roads, bridges, hospitals, schools etc. The private are contracted to carry out these projects and government pays back the money over a period of time commonly 20-30 years. The contracted private sector is also responsible for the maintenance of these projects. The other thing to mention is that Government pays fees every year and building only handed over to government once full payment are made.
PPP or PFI projects are costly and should not be encouraged unless the government will be bear the high interest paid otherwise the Zambians will have to pay the high ineterest.The likely would is that the government would borrow money from the Chinese private sector, and these people would want a return on the investment. The government should have put this in their manifesto and a policy drawn on how to deal with this problem.
Everyone seems to focus on somethng alse. The vice president is right. Interest rates in zambia are high.ordinary zambians with ordinary salaries cannot borrow to build. This has been a case for years. It was not better in unip or mmd.Iam therefore happy that the vice president is talking about it. Lets support this voice.so far it looks to be a lone voice.
@ Fumbi You are right by saying that the vice present is talking about it. The only concern is with the idea he is floating Public Private Partnerships (PPP). He has explained how that will benefit the ordinary working Zambians. For government to talked about this problem is a step forward, but they should put a realistic solution to the housing problems. PHI was a good project but in the end it only benefited a few.