Ismail Musa Ladu
19 October 2008
Kampala — Majority of people living in towns and their environs, live in unsanitary slums, the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban development has said.
Speaking in an International Housing Association conference in Kampala on October 16, Mr Daniel Omara Atubo said about 60 per cent of urban population lives in slums and informal settlements.
This housing shortfall is attributed to the high population growth which he said has "increased over the years from 60,000 units per year in the 1980s to an estimated 600,000 units currently."
In recent years, Kampala in particular, has powerlessly witnessed areas such as Katanga and Kisenyi develop into slums with more suburbs like Kawempe, Nakawa, Naguru and Kibuli among others following suit.
The reason behind this sorry housing state in Uganda is attributed to high interest rates and unavailability of long tenured funds to support the mortgage industry and housing developers. "Challenges of housing development in Uganda include high interest rate that makes funding for construction expensive and lack of funds to support mortgage industry and housing developers," the Chief Executive Officer, NHCC, Joseph Kitamirike said.
According to Mr Kitamirike other challenges like Uganda's structure of taxation is bad for construction development.
The players in the sector also maintain that government should bear the burden accrued as a result of infrastructure supply, which is normally shouldered by the developers but ultimately passed to home buyers.
Also among the thorny challenges in the housing and mortgage sector is the absence of quality assurance, a move that will lower the risk of financing home ownership in Uganda.
If the aforementioned issues are not solved, experts say, the housing situation in Uganda will get worse.
In a bid to sort out the housing mess and provide more residential housing, Mr Omar Atubo said only partnership with all stakeholders will save the situation. "The high demand for residential housing calls for partnerships with private developers, foreign investors, banks, cooperatives and NGO to mobilize enough resources to meet the scale of the national housing needs,"Mr Omara Atubo said.
According to Mr Omara Atubo the government is also committed to a continuous review of its policies and related legislation aimed at enhancing the enabling environment to facilitate private sector involvement in housing development.
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