GOVERNMENT will award the National Housing Authority (NHA) contracts to build housing units as a way to alleviate the company’s financial woes, the ministry of Infrastructure and Housing has said.
Workers at NHA have gone for many months without pay due to the many challenges the company is facing.
Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Ronald Chitotela said that in order to address most of the challenges, Government would grant NHA contracts to construct houses in the upcoming housing ventures.
Mr Chitotela said in an interview that Government would grant NHA the contract to construct housing units under the project signed with Mercury Asset Partners of the United States.
In August last year, Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mercury Asset Partners, a global financing, and logistics company to finance the building of houses for civil servants.
Mercury Asset Partners has proposed a US$ 600 million financing to undertake the construction of 5,000 low, medium and high-cost housing units for civil servants in Zambia.
“Very soon, the Mercury Asset partnership will be finalised and the NHA will have the contract to build the housing units in order to empower them,” Mr Chitotela said.
He said NHA would also be given contracts to construct provincial administrations, commercial infrastructure and 20,000 housing units that Government would soon embark on under various projects.
Mr Chitotela said NHA would also be given the duty to finish all housing and other infrastructure projects that had been abandoned by other contractors.
He said NHA would soon record positive developments following the injection of money from the contracts to build houses and that the board of directors were also finalising the turnaround strategy.
Part of the housing project Government would embark on encompassed the upgrading of unplanned townships like Msisi and Chawama.
A recent census indicates that Zambia’s current housing deficit stood at 1.5 million housing units and this is projected to hit three million by 2030 if nothing was done to contain the situation.
Most stakeholders have welcomed Government’s decision to construct houses to cushion the deficit.
The council should also take up such initiatives in accommodation, instead of depending on land allocation, am sure they will generate enough funds ,and prevent illegalities that’s going on at the moment.
All these contracts u give Chinese if they were to be in the best interest of Zambians should have been given to NHA or at least a partnership how could they go for over a year without pay
In PF we have very weird Ministers…guys like chitotela..Kampyongo..freedom Sikazwe all sunder heads
If we had been giving them contracts in the past rather than Avic and other Chinese firms we wouldn’t be in this mess today, would We, Chitotela?
Managers who wait for contracts to be given are not worth their salt. There is an acute shortage of affordable housing in this country but, NHA and ZNBS have failed to rise to the occasion. No sympathy for their managers. They ought to be ashamed of themselves!
Surely this Ronald Chitotela should not be anywhere near issuing contracts….this man has pending issues with ACC!!
Good move except beware of niviaboma wasteful attitude !!
These local contractors are a very big let down. Drive on Chingola Solwezi Rd and you will find the part recently done by Buildcon and Swift to be of extreme poor quality. And you wonder where the consultant was. And that’s how these Zambian contractors behave on every Grz project. They first eat 80percent of the money and remain nobufungawu leading to failure to execute the works. Palast kuchita abandon Ama works nokupashika
It cost only $25000to build a low cost house in Zambia….
Including infrastructure we should be able to build almost 15000 houses NOT 5000
After you have given all the money to Avic, I wonder mwee….all our loan monies gone to the Chinese….
Do you know what China Exim Bank is there for….you can not get an Exim Bank loan from China and ask the Japanese to build for you at half price, these loans are ridiculous of zero value to the local construction sector!!
Good move hope this project will be given to zambian contractors.it will make sense if we can put up a law that allows certain contract to be for zambian’s only.we have capable zambian contractors .I hope contractor in zambia should start fighting for that.we can’t have a situation where by each project is sangwapo for foreigner’s
Have you dealt with a Zambian contractor first hand? Baba these guys are a big let down. Am talking from experience. He will be supervising works in Kaputa from his hotel room in ndola, meanwhile PA site cement is being stolen by the casuals who in most cases are never paid. But a Chinese will build campsite just there where the project is being undertaken. Give a Zambian upfront he first disappears for 6months namaule kkkkkk
If the price is realistic, and the government awards the project to local contractors, then where do you think they will find a conduit for pilfering?
Most Zambian contractors are a late down. Somewhere in 2016/2017 , I saw one of them supervising a routine road maintenance works in a VX Land Cruiser smartly dressed, sadly I saw a few worker on that site offloading a few pockets of cement and a wheelbarrow, a pick and two shavels from the same VX Land cruiser. Definitely the mending of those potholes would that cement I saw mixed with sand dug out from the road side. Now you can imagine that kind of contractors. But when you look at the scope of the tender you would find it costed government a few millions.
Good job! Some people have Three Mansions, time for us to have one each. Is that HaBad thing Badala?
I am surprised that no one has commented on the meaning of a company failing to pay its workers for months. NHA is insolvent and it ought not to be trading if the Companies Act provisions mean anything.
If they havent paid workers then zra and napsa not paid. Will the zra move to liquidate the company