A South African investor has expressed interest in constructing housing units to be rented out to civil servants and other workers in Muchinga province.
Muchinga Province Permanent Secretary, Henry Mukungule said a South African investor, whom he did not name, is willing to move into the region to embark on the multi-million dollar project even before the province holds an investment forum and EXPO slated for October next year.
ZANIS reports that Mr. Mukungule said this in Mafinga district when he paid a courtesy call on the District Commissioner Boyd Kaonga.
The Provincial Permanent Secretary said the construction of housing units will cushion the housing deficit that the province is currently facing.
He said discussions have reached an advanced stage adding that government will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the South African investor.
He said some of the newly recruited health workers and teachers who are currently having difficulties with housing accommodation in areas such as Mafinga will benefit from this investment.
“The shortage of housing accommodation in the province will soon be sorted out with the coming of an investor to put up housing units in various districts,” said Mr. Mukungule.
Mr. Mukungule further said some foreign nationals under a facility called International Property Markets are also willing to construct houses for themselves in areas they want to stay.
He said in this arrangement, the foreign nationals can decide to sell their houses and leave Zambia at any time they feel like going back to their countries.
Earlier, Mafinga District Commissioner, Boyd Kaonga said most of the newly recruited health workers and teachers have no accommodation.
Mr. Kaonga said the district administration is overwhelmed with the big number of new civil servants it has received.
He said the district administration was currently looking for alternative accommodation for the civil servants so that they can quickly settle down and concentrate on their work.
“We have received more health workers here than we expected and this is good for us because we have two newly constructed modern hospitals in the district where some of these new staff will be deployed but the problem is lack of accommodation,” said Mr. Kaonga explained.