Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) will construct 78 low-income, 18 medium-cost and four high-income houses in Maun in an effort to address shortage of accommodation and promote home ownership by Batswana.
The corporations acting deputy chief executive officer, Mr Batanani Nkhumisang said this during a full council meeting recently.
He said the project was at the tender stage and that the commissioning was expected in the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year. He also said the project would be unbundled into several projects to accommodate 100 per cent citizen-owned companies.
Mr Nkhumisang said the objective of the project was to address shortage of accommodation and to contribute to citizen economic empowerment in line with the Reset Agenda through job creation opportunities.
He said the project would also support small and medium-scale enterprises growth and impart knowledge and skills as well as contribute to the development of Maun.
With regard to local economic empowerment, councillors were informed that only 100 per cent citizen-owned companies would tender for the project and that all BHC maintenance work, with a budget of over P30 million annually, would be done by citizen-owned companies only.
Furthermore, Mr Nkhumisang revealed that women and youth companies would perform maintenance contracts.
He also noted that BHC was mandated to build all Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA) houses.
The houses, he said, would be built by small contractors from the area and that building materials would also be sourced from local suppliers.
On the SHHA turnkey housing, he said since financial year 2019/2020, 70 houses were funded, 56 completed and 14 still under construction in Maun East.
He said in 2023/2024, 14 houses were added and started in February this year while in Maun West 34 houses were funded, 33 completed and one under construction.
Mr Nkhumisang said some of the challenges they faced was the abandonment of projects by contractors or individuals citing low profit margins and poor quality work due to the engagement of unskilled labour as well as shortage of material in some areas.
However, he said they had adopted some mitigation measures to empower small contractors with project management skills and close supervision and verification of materials quality.
He said non-performing contractors were terminated after exhausting all possible means as per the contract agreement.
The corporation, he said, also intended to forge partnerships with the private sector in terms of housing value chain as well as to embrace the use of innovation in the delivery of sustainable and affordable houses.
He added that they would continue to undertake research in alternative methods of construction, especially those that were environmentally friendly.
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