The Ministry of infrastructure and Housing will soon embark on building 5,000 houses for Civil Servants around Zambia.
Minster of Infrastructure and Housing Ronald Chitotela, said this project emanates from the recent census report which shows the deficit of over 1.5 million housing units.
Mr. Chitotela has since confirmed that government has started building the houses for civil servants across Zambia following the directive made by the Republican President Edgar Lungu.
“We risk reaching a housing deficit of up to 3 million by 2030 if nothing is done,” he said.
He further added that his ministry will also upgrade most of the unplanned settlements across the country with some of the targeted areas being Chawama, Misisi, and Kuku, Chbolya and Kanyama compounds and later the project will spread to other provinces in the country.
According to a statement issued to ZANIS yesterday, the Minister said this on his arrival in Washington DC where he is expected to attend meetings on infrastructure and development of the housing units following the memorandum that was signed last year.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chitotela said his office has received a proposal from Mercury Asset Partners to build a Construction Bank in Zambia to help support the sector as this will help empower the Zambian contractors facing financing challenges.
And Mercury Asset Partners, founder and Co-director Julie Bwalya said a 600 Million US Dollars is proposed to undertake the construction of 5,000 low, medium and high-cost housing units for civil servants in Zambia.
Ms. Bwalya further added that her company has also invested in the energy sector to help set up a factory plant of solar water heaters in Zambia.
When is the ministry gonna raze down and rebuild Chilbolya ,Kalingalinga ,Misisi with modern homes ,sewer lines and proper roads?
Yes it’s overdue. Come to think of it, if townships were rejuvenated like the way Nchanga mine used to incidences of diseases could be reduced significantly. Chibolya in my language means an abandoned village, is this area not occupied? Please change the name to something more appropriate like Mudzabwera.
Please ba ministers give these housing contracts to local companies with good experience and not giving the Chinese. Enough of the China man. They are not the ones who build at the end of the day. Let the little money remain in Zambia. Or it has been awarded already?
Contracts with the Chinese smells corruption.
local contractor often misbehaves…..
So what do we do to make our people be more committed?
Build High Rise Flats they take up little space and accommodate more people. Move with the times, these are not UNIP days. The population is growing and land is becoming more and more scarce.
What are you talking about all the high rise flats were built in UNIP. Go to Kabwata and Rhodes park. Till MMD came to put them on sell
You cannot maintain them, will only be an eyesore later. Zambians cannot live in Flats ba Lombe. You will start throwing garbage out of the windows on the 5th floor.
There is no point in living in an institutional house which you will vacate on retirement. An institutional house just gives false comfort. The best long term plan should be to have policies that enable Civil Servants access mortgages for them to build and own their houses!
Built houses for military personnel but they are still in the compounds. Ended up accommodating civilian workers. Pathetic. How can you build over 3,000 houses without social amenities like schools, shops, hospital etc shame!
Where are you going to get the money for crying out loud
You are always saying money is being stolen, so money will come from the same pot where you say they are stealing from.
Ndanje the money they are stealing goes into their pockets. Money for infrastructure development is borrowed money which of course they don’t mind getting as there will be a commission
You’ve missed my point.
Ba Minister, what new ideas has this Mercury Asset Partners come up with that you couldn’t enforce using the long established Zambia National Building Society???? Does the motherland lack brains which can redefine the role of this moribund institution to move with the current socio-economical tides? Re-branding the ZNBS is surely the way forward rather than engaging private personalities who you risk being connected to and suspected of having vested interests!
Building through with contract route? They previous govt sold the govt houses for a reason …you are simply going back to steal from inflated construction contracts..how are you going to maintain those houses when you can not maintain public learning instititions.
It’s good observations that going back to institution houses is taking steps backwards, but also lets look at the case of civil servants on transfer from one place to another. The recent transfers of civil and council staff exposed the negative side of having no institution houses. People are traveling kilometres every month end to see their families because they can’t find suitable accommodation at their new post.