Thursday, March 28, 2024

Government has received more than US$4 billion in pledges for housing infrastructure development sector

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Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Ronald Chitotela(m) Zambia Country representative for UNICEF,Hamid El –Bashir Ibrahim at the handover ceremony of motor Bikes by United Nations Children’ Fund(UNICEF) to the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Lusaka t
Ronald Chitotela(m)
THE Government has received more than US$4 billion in pledges from prospective investors seeking partnership in the housing infrastructure development sector.

Housing and Infrastructure Development Minister Ronald Chitotela said a Chinese company, Amer International Group, had pledged to invest $3 billion, while Magcor Zambia Holdings Limited, run by people from the United States (US), had pledged $1 billion to help the Government alleviate the national housing deficit.

Mr Chitotela said in an interview yesterday that the Government had embarked on a programme to address the national housing deficit, which currently stands at 1.5 million, through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

In this vein, the National Housing Authority (NHA) has been selected as the vehicle to drive the ‘urban renewal policy’ to be rolled out countrywide beginning this year.

“In the quest to address the national housing deficit, we have devised the urban renewal policy where we will work with the private sector to build houses for our people.

“We have received numerous offers from the private sector, among them, Amer International of China, which has offered a capital investment of $3 billion, while Magcor of the Americans is putting $1 billion on the table,” Mr Chitotela said.

He said citizens would be afforded an opportunity to buy the houses at an affordable cost, and that it was the desire of the Government to see both public and private sector employees owning a house by the time of retirement.

19 COMMENTS

  1. Let’s roll … this is where it is, no more talking about 2021!!! 2021 will take care of itself … thanks a trillion.

    • “Magcor Zambia Holdings Limited, run by people from the United States (US), had pledged $1 billion to help the Government alleviate the national housing deficit.”

      This how useless our leaders are. Entertaining “people” from the United States.

    • I agree with anyone about Magcor, no American company will take $1billion to Zambia. Dollar was invented in US, $1 billion is a lot to risk Magcor might have some Zambian dreamers involved. Leave it to Chinese.

    • Magcor Zambia Holdings Limited, run by people from the United States (US),

      This is run by Ghanians, one of which is a colleague here at the Council in Scotland.

      They were in Court in Accra and are not US affiliated, it is Ghanians, Nigerians and A gentleman from Sierra Leone.

      DOnt do it. They owe million in taxes against the Ghanaians Government.

      Corruption of this is agreed.

      Thanks

      BB2014,16

  2. hahaha I know this ka company. Ni Boza, Michael Glynn the owner of Magcor is not even worth US$50000, so where is he going to get the US$1 billion? You go to Magcor website and they are soliciting for donations. I hope the Zambian government is not going to be swindled by promising huge resources in return to this company that does not have this 1 billion

    • Pledges are not cash. Our politicians are readily duped. That’s how the convicted Mwale, as Minister of Mines, gave a Chinese company mining rights at Mwambashi because they promised to invest $4bn there. I have not seen such money yet and all he got out of that were bicycles.

  3. LT, we need clarification. Lusaka voice announced correctly in 2014 that MagCor is a Ghanaian company. It is not American but Ghanaian whose headquarters is in Canada according to what is on the internet. Clarification aside, this is good news and I wish peace to mother Zambia.

    • What good news you ignorant. This is another attempt by these looters to loot more from Zambia because they know our leaders are useless and brainless like all of you praising this theft by these so called investors.

  4. All I can say is these deals not to be clear and well explained to the citizens …unknowingly or knowingly the government maybe giving land and resources to these companies. Besides we are always told of affordable housing which always ends up not being affordable to citizens. Government needs to ensure a holistic approach to these challenges like reviewing how Taxes are applied to those that get Mortgages and the high interest rates etc. just looking at housing alone is not enough ….the Kalulushi NAPSA project is a case in point no one is buying the Houses

  5. Assuming that the “pledges” do materialize, how many people will be able to obtain finance at 40% interest per year?

    • Lungu: Brilliant observation. My question is: Can someone educate us why our Bank Interest Rates are so high in Zambia. Honestly, borrowing money at 40% is not only unattainable but criminal as well. If you are doing business and you want to borrow cash as capital injection into your business, how much mark up and profit margins are you supposed to include in your pricing regime? If you calculate future values for your total capital outlay at 40% interest payable, when are you going to break even let alone start making profit? In fact ZRA don’t even know that these high interest rates delay businesses from start of paying taxes to ZRA. The businesses will be declaring losses for a long period.

  6. No intelligent investor will lend money to a broke govt and run by an illegitimate President. These investments in housing or infrastructure are useless becoz they don’t generate foreign exchange to repay the debt. This Minister is daydreaming and just wants some limelight and relevance.

  7. I smell a RAT. It reminds me of when KK was SCAMMED through Heaven-on-Earth & Oil-from-Grass Projects. PF00Lish Ministers are so dull & gullible.

    I hope Govt will NOT be asked to partner & contribute funds or huge tracts of land.

    Remember how Anglo-American conned Zambian Govt on Konkola Deep Project. Govt went & borrowed $Billions from IMF as 50% share for the project. Anglo siphoned all the money to RSA & abandoned the project & KCM. The man who assisted with siphoning, Norman Mbazima, was rewarded with a top job at Anglo American in RSA.

    • These guys have been contracted and not pledged that 4 billion they are talking about. The chaps in governments are good at framing messages to excite ignorant citizens without explaining everything. Poor Zambians will have to folk out a lot of money to buy those homes, when they can build their own. MCG Construction Ltd. and the MCG Group of Companies are proud to announce a joint venture partnership with Magcor Zambia Ltd. and its CEO & President, Michael J. Glynn in a Government supported mandate to build 15,000 affordable homes and a 110-unit gated community in the Republic of Zambia.

  8. When you look at the criticism from the rest of us its not hard to tell that we do engage into these criticism because we feel we are not part of the action. We get infuriated with anger, jealousy, fear, suspicion and these assumptions have slowed us down and killed all the progress or the initiative we could have pushed to achieve something positive. What’s wrong if Magcor Inter’l or Magcor Ghana was awarded a PPP after the government officials vetted their source of funds, vetted their PPP projects presented and are you telling us that all parties are NHA, or the ministry are corrupt. What’s wrong if government would be promised $3 Billion from the Chinese investor in order for govt to deliver the most needed houses that people like an ordinary teacher, nurse, forest ranger and…

    • JJ: The issue is that these companies should be Credit Worth and also not owned by crooks. In the Credit World there is what is known as “Identity Theft” where people will steal your identity and obtain loans and run away without paying a dime. Then the real owner of the Identity remains in trouble. You do not want that to happen to our beloved country and that is why bloggers are particular and concerned with the type of investors being courted to invest in Zambia. Chitotela should not be too excited with these investors who promise Heaven on Earth without doing a robust due diligence on them. We talking of a country and we have to be extremely careful. Good projects are only good when implemented by legitimate investors otherwise it will be a disaster

  9. Miya: Lets sober down as unsolicited proposals for PPP (Public Private Partnerships) projects involve “a contract between a public sector authority and a private party, in which a private party provides a public service or project and assumes substantial financial, technical and operational risk in the project. It combines the efficiency of private firms with the “trustworthiness” related to a public enterprise. This solution addresses the following (NCPPP, 2010) (US Dept of Federal Highway Administration, 2010):
    1. Reduces public capital investment
    2. Improves efficiency due to strong profit incentive
    3. Private entity is more accountable than government
    4. Expedited project completion by grouping multiple responsibilities into a single contract
    5. Specialised expertise
    6…

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