Mpango: Tap govt’s home opportunity

DODOMA: VICE-PRESIDENT, Dr Philip Mpango has launched a robust plan for residential houses for public servants, asking employees in the public service to grab an opportunity to own the affordable houses.

The newly launched plan is being implemented by Watumishi Housing Investment (WHI) countrywide in efforts to help public servants to live comfortable and luxurious lives in their own houses.

The VP also tasked WHI to ease the processes for civil servants to acquire the affordable residential houses so that many of them can have their own homes. He directed the state-owned housing entity to intensify transparency and accountability in the entire process

The plan according to Dr Mpango aims at ensuring that public employees have their own houses as he equally requested the private sector to equally support the efforts by the sixth phase government in ensuring that employees are getting individual descent houses.

Dr Mpango directed the ministry of finance to speed up the process to allow WHI to get loans from different sources within and outside the country for expanding the implementation of the plan for the scheme.

The VP directed the President’s Office (Public Services Management and Good Governance) to cooperate with the Ministry of Land, Housing and Human Settlement Development and the Offices of District Commissioners countrywide to facilitate availability of plots of land for putting up residential houses for public employees.

The Vice President issued the directives in Dodoma yesterday at the launching of the special plan for the construction of a total of over 2,000 houses for public servants, to be implemented within five years by WHI countrywide.

The low-cost houses according to WHI Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Fred Msemwa are part of the project for the construction of affordable houses for employees in the public service countrywide which kicked off in 2014.

“The implementation of the plan to have the best residential houses for public servants is part of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s aspiration to ensure that Tanzanians have access to affordable houses,’’ he said.

At the launching event held in Njedengwa area in the outskirts of Dodoma City, Dr Mpango underscored the need for the private sector to join hands with the government to introduce similar housing projects.

To ensure enough funds for the project, Dr Mpango explained the need for the state-owned real estate developer company to consider using bonds, as well as cementing its ties with wider financial institutions.

Apart from appreciating the good role so far played by WHI in ensuring the civil servants become house owners at affordable prices, he challenged the company to design and build house units that suit the residence purpose for at least 30 years ahead.

“The public service sector in Tanzania is crippled with a major challenge of acute deficit of residences for civil servants, in both urban and rural areas,” said the VP.

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This, according to him, was frustrating a working spirit among most servants who mostly live far away from their duty stations and others in poor houses.

Because of this, he noted, the government through the President’s Office (Public Service Management and Good Governance) decided to prepare the special housing scheme, purposeful for the civil servants and tasked WHI to implement it.

“Under the five-year plan (2023/ 25 to 2025/27) the target is to ensure the civil servants in the country are provided with the opportunity to own houses at affordable prices,” he insisted.

Speaking at the occasion, the Minister of State in the President’s Office ( Public Service Management and Good Governance), George Simbachawene said that the country’s public service sector needs at least 200,000 houses to cover a gap for the civil servants residence houses.

He said the government through WHI was working around the clock to overcome the deficit, but more funds were needed to achieve the targeted goal.

“To meet the target, accountability, transparency and stakeholders’ participation remain the major prerequisites,” he said.

The minister commended WHI for its creativity and hard work in putting up over 1000 house units for civil servants, as well as setting a friendly system for the beneficiaries to purchase the structures through diverse loan schemes.