By HELLEN TEMBO –
THE National Housing Authority (NHA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Chinese company, Zhogmei, to construct 20,000 housing units for civil servants on an own housing scheme.
NHA chief executive officer Waicha Ndhlovu said the first phase involving 5,000 houses will cost US$80 million.
Ms Ndhlovu said the houses would start from the range of K400,000 to K800,000 depending on the house and payment period would range from 25 to 30 years.
She said this during the signing of the MoU in Lusaka yesterday.
She said in the past, the public was worried about the cost of buying NHA houses, but assured that the new houses were going to be affordable.
Zongmei managing director Sterlin Shi said the houses would include low, medium and high cost units.
Mr Sterlin said their company provided good quality houses and the project would create more than 3,000 jobs for Zambians.
Housing and Infrastructure Development Minister Ronald Chitotela said the 20,000 housing units would be built in the country’s 10 provinces.
Mr Chitotela said the Government had challenges in terms of providing accommodation for public service workers, hence the MoU signified the commitment by the Government to reduce the housing deficit.
He said the houses would benefit civil servants and those working in parastatals.
Mr Chitotela said the MoU gave an opportunity for civil servants to own houses, because the range of paying period would be from 25 to 30 years.
He said the majority of housing units would be along the line of rail because of the demand, which demonstrated President Edgar Lungu’s ambitious programme of making sure that Zambians had affordable and decent houses.
Mr Chitotela appealed to the private sector players to partner with his ministry in demonstrating the capacity as shown by Zongmei.