Select Page

Twenty-six families in Aranos to benefit from Buy-a-Brick initiative

Twenty-six families in Aranos to benefit from Buy-a-Brick initiative

The town of Aranos, with a population of 4000 is the latest beneficiary of the Buy-a-Brick Initiative and 26 six families are expected to benefit following the launch of the construction project this week.

Urban and Rural Development Deputy Minister, Derek Klazen officially launched the construction project of 26 houses at Aranos in the Hardap this week. Construction is expected to be completed in the next 3 months.

Speaking at the launch Klazen hailed the initiative as a game changer in the provision of affordable housing to the low-income communities and reiterated his ministry’s call for corporate sector to assist the government in the provision of housing for needy Namibians.

“Our resources as Government will never be enough to address all of our society’s needs. Coupled to that, the priority list of Government is so long and we would not be able to address it sufficiently if it were left to us as government alone to ensure that we provide what is required,” Klazen said.

The Minister said he was encouraged by efforts to investigate to possibility of using alternative building methods that would further lower the cost of housing, expressing the hope that the new building methods will enable many more people to acquire decent houses as opposed to the sub-standard, makeshift structures that some of them are living in currently.

The Buy-a-Brick Initiative was launched in 2015 under the custodianship of Standard Bank and has so far managed to construct 200 houses in Rehoboth, Otjinene, Berseba, Windhoek, Okongo, Helao Nafidi, Mariental, Aminuis and Gobabis, Rupara through the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia.

Speaking at the launch, Standard Bank’s Head of Marketing and Communications, Magreth Mengo said in the light of the country celebrating 30 years of Independence and despite the many gains made over the years, there are still Namibians who do not enjoy the basic human right such as housing.

“Unfortunately, there are some of our countrymen and women, around 900,000 of them, who are not enjoying our independence to the full extend that the rest of us are doing. They languish in poverty, and besides worrying about what to eat every day, they pray for a roof over their heads. As a country, we cannot just look while our own people have no place to call home while we enjoy the comfort of warm blankets and good food every day,” Mengo said.

Since its launch in 2015, the Buy-a-Brick Initiative, under the custodianship of Standard Bank, has so far enabled the construction of 200 houses and a further 380 are scheduled for completion this year with money contributed by various businesses. In 2015, the initiative raised N$1.4 million, while in the following year, it raised approximately N$2 million, followed by N$3.7 million in 2018. The total number of houses constructed so far are 200.

A further N$13 million was contributed by various businesses for the construction of 380 houses in 2020 with at least 1,000 targeted for 2021.


 

About The Author

Donald Matthys

Donald Matthys has been part of the media fraternity since 2015. He has been working at the Namibia Economist for the past three years mainly covering business, tourism and agriculture. Donald occasionally refers to himself as a theatre maker and has staged two theatre plays so far. Follow him on twitter at @zuleitmatthys