Chronicle EditorLeonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
THREE massive housing projects are on the cards in Victoria Falls through a partnership between Government and private sector, with a groundbreaking ceremony set for tomorrow on the sidelines of the 41st Shelter Afrique symposium.
On one of the projects, Government has partnered with Shelter Afrique, a pan-African banking institution that exclusively supports the development of affordable housing and real estate sector growth in Africa and these will be four blocks of flats with 164 units.
The other two are spearheaded by private sector developers in the city and will have a combined 120 units. As a shareholder to Shelter Afrique, Zimbabwe is receiving US$25 million for housing projects.
National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe said the groundbreaking ceremony will be done tomorrow as a side event to the annual general meeting.
He said these will be blocks of flats which will be divided into several units. Minister Garwe said the project is part of a revolving fund and the flats will be sold to affording citizens, but targeting middle income earners.
There will also be a tour of the two sites of housing schemes spearheaded by some private sector developers.
“We are targeting the middle income cluster.
These are not going to be given for free because this is a revolving fund, so we will sell them to people who can afford.
We are also going to visit two construction sites being done by the private sector as they requested that we visit as they are working very closely with the ministry.
One has 94 units and the other one has 26 units,” said the Minister.
He said the developments are a confirmation of the private sector’s heed to the country’s housing policy that on-site-off-site infrastructure must be provided before any super structure is constructed and the densification call to preserve land and build structures going upwards.
“It’s a private sector call and response to Government housing policy that we must preserve land and build going upwards.
Our major role as Government through the Ministry of National Housing is predominantly to facilitate delivery of housing and we are on record saying we want to provide at least 1.2 million houses by 2030 and we have come up with a programme which is aligned to the National Development Strategy (NDS1) where we want to deliver about 220 000 housing units by 2025,” said Minister Garwe.
He said Government cannot achieve these targets alone hence partnerships with the private sector. He called for a collective approach by Government, private sector, pension funds, insurance companies, corporates and individual citizens to achieve the targets.
While there is significant construction of hotels and lodges, Victoria Falls struggles with both accommodation for residents who are mostly employed in the tourism industry and office space. This has seen property owners inflating rentals, making life unaffordable for ordinary citizens.
Minister Garwe said Government was aware of the accommodation challenges in Victoria Falls hence the partnership with the private sector to close the gap. The resort city housing backlog is around 15 000. The Minister said Government primary focus is to provide social housing for every worker including civil servants in Victoria Falls and countrywide to address housing the backlog.
According to the Shelter Afrique research arm, Centre of Excellence, the overall shortage of housing in Africa is estimated to be 56 million housing units and the backlog has to be cleared by 2063.
Minister Garwe, who is already in Victoria Falls to finalise preparations and welcome his counterparts and delegates to the auspicious event, said preparations were going well.
“In terms of attendance, as of yesterday we had 25 member countries who had confirmed attendance at ministerial level. So we are expecting 25 Housing Ministers to be present.
I understand we are likely to be having at least three governors of reserve banks including ours, but we are also going to be having senior officials from Ministries of Finance from the various shareholder countries,” said Minister Garwe.
He said the programme effectively starts tomorrow with the official opening.
Major international financiers, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Development Bank and other developers are expected to attend.
According to the programme, there are high level speakers who include Shelter Afrique chairman Mr Ephraim Bichetero and the organisation’s chief executive Mr Kingsley Muwowo.
African Finance Ministers will have a Roundtable which will be attended by Reserve Bank Governors from member states.
There will also be another Ministerial roundtable of Ministers in charge of housing and plenary sessions to discuss a cross section of issues relating to housing. There will also be a business development engaging session with Zimbabwean developers as well as exhibitions that will run parallel to the conference. Thursday is dedicated for the AGM.–@ncubeleon
Online Reporter
Londile Moyo