The Infrastructure and Development Bank of Zimbabwe will develop 338 high to medium density residential stands under its New Marimba housing project, a senior official with the bank said yesterday. Speaking after official site hand over to civil works contractor, Masimba Holdings, assistant director, Corporate Banking Reginald Dangarembwa said servicing of the stands will take about four months.
“We have just completed the site handover to Masimba Holdings, the contractor responsible for civil works and they will immediately begin the process of mobilising equipment for serving the stands. We have 300 square metre stands totalling 202 and 510 square metre stands totalling 138,” Mr Dangarembwa said.
“Servicing of the stands will take four months and that includes the roads, sewer systems, electrification and water reticulation, but all the stands under this project have been sold out,” he added.
It is estimated the exercise will cost plus or minus $2 million. Both the 300sqm stands and 510sqm stands, for which deposits ranged from $2 500 and $4 400, would be paid for over a period of 10 years and the cost will attract interest of 10 percent per year.
Mr Dangarembwa said the project was part of IDBZ’s contribution towards closing the infrastructure deficit in line with Government’s targets under the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-economic Transformation, covering the five-year period 2014-2018.
In pursuance of Zim-Asset objectives, Government identified four strategic clusters as central to the achievement of overall goals of economic growth and wealth creation and the main clusters are food and nutrition, social services and poverty eradication, value addition and beneficiation and infrastructure and utilities.
As such, as a development finance institution whose mandate is underpinned on infrastructure development, IDBZ is a key player under the infrastructure and utilities cluster of the medium term plan.
The bank’s infrastructure development objectives from 2016 to 2018 are intertwined with objectives of both Zim-Asset and the 10 point plan, which also places priority on infrastructure development among them the energy, water, transport and ICT sub-sectors.
Mr Dangarembwa said the infrastructure development bank was busy with two other projects to be rolled out in Harare, but would not reveal details on them except that they are near New Marimba and that the two would be rolled out around May or June this year.
IDBZ recently came up with a draft housing policy to its guide sector interventions aimed at easing housing shortage in the next two years. The bank’s policy strategy seeks to support Government’s 2012 National Housing Development Programme target of providing 1,2 million serviced residential stands, by facilitating development of about 5 000 serviced stands annually from 2015 to 2018.
The draft policy outlines plans to acquire land for housing development and funding mechanisms for the delivery of affordable units. IDBZ has since invited stakeholder input on its proposal.
To deliver affordable housing, IDBZ will seek to acquire land and development permits, extend financial and technical resources to players in the sector, enter into partnership with public or private players and assist genuine housing co-operatives’ initiatives.