Hats off to Dr Soda

National Hous­ing and Social Amen­it­ies Min­is­ter Zhemu Soda

Africa Moyo

Deputy National Editor

National Hous­ing and Social Amen­it­ies Min­is­ter Zhemu Soda, who was recently conferred with a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree in Leadership at the IIC University of Technology, Cambodia, is a man on a mission to transform the country’s housing sector.

His determination is clearly demonstrated. He is committed to sourcing funds for the sector to ensure everyone has a roof over their heads.

Under his watch, Zimbabwe has unlocked over US$1 bil­lion in hous­ing fin­ance under the National Devel­op­ment Strategy 1 (NDS1), sur­pass­ing the ini­tial pro­jec­tion of US$233,75 mil­lion by a huge margin.

In an inter­view at his Har­are office, Min­is­ter Soda said the fund­ing mile­stone reflects the coun­try’s grow­ing abil­ity to attract both local and regional invest­ment into the hous­ing and infra­struc­ture sec­tors.

“Improv­ing access to hous­ing fin­ance is one of our key deliv­er­ables under the NDS1 hous­ing deliv­ery cluster. Sur­pass­ing our ini­tial tar­get by such a sig­ni­fic­ant mar­gin is a clear sign of mar­ket con­fid­ence and our effect­ive engage­ment with both local and regional fin­an­cial insti­tu­tions,” he said.

Since 2021, the min­istry had set a tar­get of 220 000 hous­ing units, which has already been exceeded, prompt­ing the Cab­inet to revise the tar­get to one mil­lion.

To date, over 800 000 hous­ing units have been delivered, driven by Zim­b­abwe’s grow­ing capa­city to mobil­ise fund­ing. Min­is­ter Soda cla­ri­fied that the fig­ures include both fully ser­viced stands and com­pleted houses.

One of the key con­trib­ut­ors to this suc­cess has been Zim­b­abwe’s act­ive par­ti­cip­a­tion as a Class A share­holder in the Shel­ter Afrique Devel­op­ment Bank (ShafDB), a pan-African mul­ti­lat­eral insti­tu­tion focused on mobil­ising resources for hous­ing and infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment.

Since 2010, Zim­b­abwe has accessed US$85 mil­lion from ShafDB, with US$30 mil­lion secured dur­ing the NDS1 period. These funds were chan­nelled through local banks such as CBZ.

To fur­ther enhance access to hous­ing fin­ance, Zim­b­abwe has applied for a cap­ital increase facil­ity of over US$8,8 mil­lion to ShafDB from the Arab Bank for Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment in Africa (BADEA). Min­is­ter Soda said this would raise Zim­b­abwe’s share­hold­ing in ShafDB from 1,25 per­cent to five per­cent, giv­ing the coun­try greater lever­age in future fin­an­cial dis­burse­ments.

The facil­ity has already been approved by BADEA’S board of dir­ect­ors and is now await­ing the sign­ing of the rel­ev­ant agree­ments.

“Our grow­ing stake in ShafDB reflects our long-term com­mit­ment to regional co-oper­a­tion and infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment. It allows Zim­b­abwe to tap into lar­ger cap­ital pools for hous­ing fin­ance and deliv­ery,” he said.

Zim­b­abwe has also par­ti­cip­ated in the Viral model research — Vis­ion, Insti­tu­tions, Reg­u­la­tions, Act­ors, Local Ini­ti­at­ives — a frame­work developed by ShafDB with fin­an­cial sup­port from the African Devel­op­ment Bank. This ini­ti­at­ive assesses national hous­ing eco­sys­tems, par­tic­u­larly in terms of afford­ab­il­ity and sus­tain­ab­il­ity.

Loc­ally, the Min­istry of National Hous­ing has played a pivotal role in attract­ing private sec­tor invest­ment by issu­ing let­ters of sup­port for pre­scribed asset status, enabling sev­eral large-s­cale hous­ing and infra­struc­ture projects.

These projects include FBC Bank’s US$3.6 mil­lion Four Miles hous­ing devel­op­ment in Zvishavane, a US$7.9 mil­lion invest­ment by the Min­ing Industry Pen­sion Fund (MIPF) for stu­dent accom­mod­a­tion in Chin­hoyi and the US$3.653 mil­lion Gokwe shop­ping mall devel­op­ment.

Min­is­ter Soda said these projects demon­strate how pub­lic-private part­ner­ships can be lever­aged to close the hous­ing gap and improve access to essen­tial ser­vices in under­served areas.

He also high­lighted the reg­u­lar­isa­tion of informal set­tle­ments as a key pil­lar of the min­istry’s long-term hous­ing strategy. This approach includes land replan­ning; the pro­duc­tion of engin­eer­ing designs for water, sewer, roads and storm water sys­tems, fol­lowed by infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment and the issu­ance of com­pli­ance cer­ti­fic­ates and title deeds.

“Title deeds unlock hous­ing fin­ance as they provide col­lat­eral. In the case of reg­u­lar­isa­tion, the title will be endorsed to allow for repay­ment on invest­ments made by fin­an­cial arrangers. This reg­u­lar­isa­tion pro­cess is anchored in a user-pay model, allow­ing bene­fi­ciar­ies to repay invest­ments under flex­ible terms,” he said.

To oper­a­tion­al­ise the reg­u­lar­isa­tion plan, Pres­id­ent Mnan­gagwa launched the Pres­id­en­tial Title Deeds Pro­gramme in 2023. A spe­cial pur­pose vehicle (SPV) — the Kwangu/Ngak­wami Pres­id­en­tial Title Deeds Pro­gramme Trust — was estab­lished to lead the pro­cess, mobil­ise private sec­tor fund­ing and over­see the digital issu­ance of title deeds. Kwangu enables the Gov­ern­ment to form­al­ise informal set­tle­ments in a struc­tured and sus­tain­able man­ner.

Min­is­ter Soda said the ini­ti­at­ive would unlock land value, improve ten­ure secur­ity and attract fur­ther invest­ment in hous­ing infra­struc­ture.

As part of Zim­b­abwe’s ongo­ing engage­ment and re-engage­ment drive, the Min­istry of National Hous­ing has signed sev­eral memor­anda of under­stand­ing with coun­tries such as Egypt, Rwanda, Angola and Bot­swana, with advanced dis­cus­sions under­way with Kenya and Algeria.

These part­ner­ships focus on know­ledge exchange, afford­able hous­ing deliv­ery and access to new fin­an­cing and tech­no­lo­gies.

As the nation celebrates this housing milestone, it also congratulates you on your PhD and urges you to go for more.

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