Major housing project underway in regions

DAILY NEWS Reporter

Watumishi Housing Company (WHC), Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Fred Msemwa.

A DREAM by the majority of lowly paid public servants to own modern and durable homes is set to be realised soon following a move by Watumishi Housing Company (WHC) to launch a construction drive of 800 houses in four regions.

The move by WHC is a fulfilment of a promise made by the fourth phase government under retired president Jakaya Kikwete for the government to seek a lasting solution to the lack of descent houses by civil servants.

Speaking to the press in Dar es Salaam, WHC Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Fred Msemwa named the regions with the housing units in brackets as Tanga at Pongwe area (40), Mwanza at Kisesa Township (56) and Dar es Salaam which will receive the bulk of the houses to be built in Kigamboni (400), Bunju (190) and Magomeni Usalama (104). According to the WHC Chief Executive Officer, the Magomeni Usalama project is set to build two flat buildings with 15 floors each.

The buildings to be built right at the heart of a historical part of Dar es Salaam in which it used to be the home for a good number of mid-ranking civil servants of independent Tanzania Mainland (Tanganyika) is set to change once and forever the area’s scenery.

“The move to launch this construction drive is just a tip of the iceberg as WHC is all out to unleash one of the major moves to ease the plight of public servants. The 800 housing units are going to act as a prelude to the following massive campaign to construct about 50,000, affordable homes for public servants in a period of five phases effective 2014/15 fiscal year,” said the CEO.

Besides Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Tanga and Mwanza regions benefitting in the construction of the low cost, yet descent houses under the WHC’s first phase drive covering this year other regions lined up for the construction drive in the near future are Dodoma, Ruvuma, Mtwara, Mbeya, Kigoma, Mwanza, Shinyanga, Arusha, Tanga, Lindi and Coast.

It is in Coast Region where WHC is set to radically change the face of Kibaha Township by launching a massive project to build 1,000 housing units in what will be a satellite town aimed at warding off the town’s residents commuting to Dar es Salaam for shopping.

“We are about to radically change the face of Kibaha by creating a satellite city of 1,000 modern housing units plus supportive commercial infrastructure including setting up an ultra-modern shopping mall and other public amenities to serve up to 5,000 residents.

This might turn to be one of the mega-projects to be undertaken by WHC as it scales up the ladder of serving both civil servants and the nation. I am sincerely asking our customers to have a trust on our efforts to turn into a reality their decades long dreams to own modern and descent houses,” added Dr Msemwa.

To clear the way for public servants to purchase affordable homes under WHC, the outfit has signed transactions agreements with five commercial banks which are CRDB Bank, Azania, NMB, Bank of Africa (BoA), and Exim Bank