Government to build 100 000 houses for the needy

Vice-President Saulos Chilima has reiterated the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) pre-election promise to offer citizens decent housing.

Speaking on Saturday during a whistle-stop tour of Thyolo and Blantyre, Chilima said with the passing of the 2014/15 National Budget, government will soon start constructing low-cost houses for needy Malawians.

“We will construct 100 houses per constituency. This means we shall construct 19 300 houses in all the constituencies during this financial year. These houses are meant to improve the living standards of needy Malawians,” said Chilima.

If the programme is successfully implemented, the DPP-led government would have constructed about 100 000 houses for poor households during its five-year term by 2019.

But Chilima said the number of beneficiaries would rise in the subsequent years as government will be increasing funding to the programme.

He also said the community technical colleges initiative was on course and government will soon start offering lessons to rural youths.

President Peter Mutharika, currently attending the 69th session of UN General Assembly in USA, has sealed a deal with an American charity Building Tomorrow to start building the colleges across Malawi from February next year.

This comes at the back of a recent adoption of Malawi Government’s initiative on the introduction of the colleges in all the country’s districts by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The whistle-stop tour took Chilima to Lomola, Milonga and Goliati primary schools in Thyolo East Constituency and Mdeka and Chinamvuu primary schools and Lirangwe Trading Centre in Blantyre North Constituency where he campaigned for the DPP candidates ahead of the October 7 by-elections.