Keetmanshoop, NIPAM partnership set to service 390 plots in the townships
Keetmanshoop Municipality and the Namibia Institute Of Public Administration And Management (NIPAM) recently signed an agreement to service 390 plots in the Westdene and Krönlein townships.
The municipality foresees to complete the servicing of these plots during the course of 2021. Keetmanshoop Municipality CEO, Desmond Basson explained that a survey conducted late in 2020 indicated that the residents of Keetmanshoop expressed a need for serviced land which they can purchase directly from the municipality, rather than housing units bought from private developers, hence the decision to provide 280 serviced plots in Krönlein Extension 2 and 110 serviced plots in Keetmanshoop Extension 3 (Westdene).
The plots in Westdene will range from N$180 – N$200/ sqm, and the plots in Krönlein will cost around N$100 – N$120/sqm. Keetmanshoop and NIPAM are looking at obtaining funding of around N$ 60 million for this project.
In terms of the partnership, Keetmanshoop Municipality has appointed NIPAM as Project Managers to amongst others conduct housing market studies, prepare funding proposals and obtain relevant regulatory approvals to ensure the successful implementation of the project.
Council’s Management Committee Chairperson, Easter Isaacks, remarked that land delivery is among the top priorities of the new Council elected in November 2020 and that the Council would embark on various models of land delivery to ensure that the needs of all income groups are met.
“We rely on own funding, annual allocations from central government as well as projects promoted by development partners to speed up land delivery,” Isaacks said.
NIPAM’s Executive Director, Maria Nangolo said during the year 2019 NIPAM introduced a course called Project Finance, which was tailor-made to assist Local Authority officials to gain better insight on sound financial management of key projects.
“The Keetmanshoop Municipality requested NIPAM for assistance in the development of the feasibility and concept to accelerate servicing of land through project finance. This MoU represents a starting point of this association and journey which is guided by national interest and respective mandates of the joint institutions,” Nangolo said.
Keetmanshoop Municipality.
