Africa-Press – Namibia. THE governor of the Erongo region, Neville Andre, has urged fishing companies to build their employees houses.
Andre made this request on Wednesday during the new fishing rights holders introduction session by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources at Walvis Bay.
The governor said rights holders should utilise marine resources to address the socio-economic challenges of employees in the fishing industry.
“One such challenge is the provision of housing in the country, but at Walvis Bay in particular. Many of the employees working at the fishing companies are staying in shacks. I want to urge the fishing companies to build houses for their workers,” Andre says.
Because of their employment conditions many fishermen are denied home loans by financial institutions.
As a result, they have resorted to living in backyard shacks or at Twaloloka informal settlement.
This was confirmed recently when the municipality installed prepaid meters for fishermen with houses, and not more than 30 out of over 500 fishermen came forward for installation.
Last year a consortium of fishing companies, comprising Cavema Fishing, Rainbow Fishing, Overberg Fishing and Scombrus Fishing bought a five-hectare piece of land north of Kuisebmond that will see the construction of 330 housing units for its employees.
