The government of Zimbabwe as approved plans developed by the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) to mobilize a total of US$100 million from the local market to initiate and fund housing projects in the country.
In a statement when he unveiled IDBZ’s Marimba Park Project in Harare recently, IDBZ CEO Thomas Sakala said the capital-raising program had the support of the ministry of Finance.
“They have given the bank approval to raise $100 million from the local market, over a five-year period, for investment into the housing sector,” Sakala said.
Also read:FBC building society helps tackle housing deficit in Zimbabwe
He adds that the bank’s main focus in the housing sector is to deliver both onsite and offsite infrastructure because availability of infrastructure is a major booster towards attaining sustainable and affordable housing in the public as well as the private sector.
Consequently, the ministry of Local Government, Public Works in conjunction with the National Housing and the City of Harare have developed a plan to provide land to develop the IDBZ housing projects to fill the 1.2 million housing gap in the capital.
Housing is one of the key pillars that fall under the national infrastructure development plan. The rest are water and sanitation, energy, and power, ICT and transportation.
Zimbabwe minister of finance Patrick Chinamasa said the country needs a healthy financial market in order to develop her infrastructure like housing, power generation, roads and railway systems. To achieve a favorable financial environment, the minister suggests an increase in the country’s levels of domestic saving.
The 2017 budget has allocated $US188.5 million towards development of infrastructure. This budget is inclusive of cost of employment and operations. This allocation will be beefed up by public private partnership engagements as well as loans.
This gives a total of $839,9 million directed at funding for infrastructure projects.
