The Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Erastus Uutoni, has appointed a new board for the National Housing Enterprise (NHE).
Namibia Civil Aviation Authority’s (NCAA) Executive Director Toska Sem was appointed as board chairperson, deputised by Tjipueja Hasting.
Other members of the new board include: Ritta Khiba, Adda Angula, Erickson Mwanyekange, and Socrates Dias.
Board Chairperson Sem says the new board will focus more on making NHE raise capital and explore alternative modes to finance affordable housing.
“The Covid-19 effects on the Namibian economy are real, therefore [the] Government of the Republic of Namibia is faced with more pressing challenges related to address education and health just to mention a few amongst the critical social sectors. It is with that understanding that government funding is limited,” she said.
She said the NHE will also look into engaging local authorities as it seeks to intensify land acquisitions for housing construction.
“Amongst our key priority areas is to strengthen stakeholder relations with key stakeholders most importantly, Local Authorities so that land acquisitions efforts can be intensified. Furthermore, we look forward to collaborating with various industries as housing delivery is a collective effort and should not only be limited to NHE. Emphasis will be laid on strengthening our strategic oversight, enhancing reengineering business process and the finalisation of the annual financial statements amongst others,” Sem said.
The new board takes over from the Sam Shivute-led board.
According to Urban and Rural Development Minister Uutoni, Namibia has a national housing backlog of over 300,000 housing units, with around 70% of the backlog being made up of low income categories (income below N$1,500) who cannot access credit from financial institutions.
The National Housing Enterprise is a state-owned company of the Government of the Republic of Namibia under the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development tasked with providing and financing housing needs to low- and middle-income inhabitants of Namibia.
