Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – The Ministry of Finance has finally released funds for the execution of the mass housing programme by the National Housing Enterprise (NHE), after weeks of bickering over the release of the funds.
New Era understands the NHE this week got N$187 million, while another N$33 million was released last week.
This week about N$300 million meant for the scheme was funnelled to the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development.
The funds are expected to expedite the mass housing scheme, with the NHE planning to hand over to government at least 1 000 houses by August.
“The release of the funds makes the process easier to administer, unlike in the past when the NHE struggled to carry out that mandate smoothly in the absence of money from government,” a source told New Era.
NHE has been desperate for this money to carry out the responsibility bestowed on it by government to execute the construction of houses, as part of plans to overcome the housing crisis in the country.
The company has been using its own funds to settle the invoices received from contractors across the country, something the housing company said was interrupting plans for its own projects that were already running before mass housing came into being late last year.
The housing ministry this year received a budget of N$2,6 billion, a portion of which will be used for mass housing.
President Hifikepunye Pohamba, initiator of the ambitious housing scheme, is understood to have been pushing for the project to proceed without delay, amidst alleged suggestions by some principals that NHE must be stripped of the mandate to execute the mass housing programme.