By Elia Chibwe

Lilongwe, September 13, Mana: Malawi Housing Corporation has disclosed that they expect to build 25,000 to 50,000 houses through their partnership with Al-Bader International Development Company of Kuwait.

Speaking during the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), on Friday in Lilongwe, Chairperson for Malawi Housing Corporation, Jaleck Kachipanda said government envision to construct 250 thousand houses through different stakeholders and their partnership with the company of Kuwait marks a milestone for the 250 flagship project. 

“We cannot give them the entire 250,000, but of course during our initial discussions, we are talking about 25,000 to 50,000 houses,” Kachipanda said.

He said that government embarked on a project to address issues of growing demand for housing due to the population growth and urbanization and to achieve Malawi 2063 agenda of transforming the nation into an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant nation.

“The Corporation is challenged by limited stock of housing units (6,000) coupled with unprecedented levels of population growth which is 2.8 percent per year with current estimated population of 20 million.

“And government is embarking on transforming the country into an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant nation by the year 2063. So government of Malawi challenged MHC to build 250,000 housing units in the next 10 years through the application of environmentally friendly construction technologies,” he said.

Senior Advisor of the Chairman for Al-Bader International Development Company of Kuwait, Abdelazeem D.Abd El Rahim said they are committed to participate in the country’s sustainable development.

“We are hoping also not only to implement this project, we are looking forward also to implement other projects because there are advantages involved in infrastructure implementation and funding of infrastructure projects.

“So we are hoping also to receive other projects, study them and also implement them and participate in the sustainable development of the country,” El Rahim said.

MHC has earmarked sites in the four cities of the country namely Lilongwe, Blantyre, Zomba and Mzuzu.