KEETMANSHOOP — The Keetmanshoop Municipality launched the construction of 30 new houses on Tuesday, a project aimed at providing affordable housing to low-income earners. This initiative, part of the Build Together project, has an allocated budget of N.dollars 2 million from the 2023/2024 fiscal year funds granted by the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development.

According to Namibia Press Agency, Keetmanshoop Mayor McDonald Hanse highlighted that the project is set to be completed before the year’s end. The mayor shared plans for the upcoming 2024/2025 fiscal year, which include constructing an additional 50 houses under the same program, with a budget of N.dollars 2.5 million. He emphasized the significant housing backlog in Keetmanshoop, which currently stands at 4,000 units.

Mayor Hanse also noted the municipality’s commitment to empowering local small contractors through this project, stating, “For this project we gave the tender to our local small contractors, just to empower them and ensure they also get something and not just have the big companies doing all the work. We just await the funds from the line ministry for this financial year, so that we start with construction of the 50 houses.”

The construction involves about ten local contractors, with Michael Humphries of HMH Trading Enterprise expressing gratitude for the opportunity to contribute to the community. “We are grateful that the municipality has trusted us with this project and we are able to show what we as small business can do for our community. With this project we are able to recruit our local people too, I have recruited six people,” said Humphries in an interview with Nampa.

The new homes, located in the Tseiblaagte 7 residential area, are being built on fully serviced plots equipped with water and electricity. Each house will feature two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room, with a cost of N.dollars 80,000 per unit.