By: Nghiinomenwa-vali Hangala
From 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) has grown its housing loan books by 3.6% to over N$1.1 billion, while building 191 houses.
This includes a profit growth of N$23 million compared to the N$6 million recorded in the 2023/24 financial year, as revealed by the NHE board chairperson, Toska Sem, during the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) last week.
In remarks at the AGM, Minister of Urban and Rural Development, James Sankwasa, acknowledged the enterprise’s positive performance, adding that the properties transferred to owners and new mortgage bonds registered are a good sign of people having assets in their names.
Sankwasa, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the number of houses built across five towns in the 2024/25 financial year, stating that “In view of this snail pace of housing provisions against housing targets set by the government, we have a lot of work to do regarding this extremely low output.”
He explained that housing remains a complex and pressing national challenge, central to the government’s development goals of poverty eradication and dignified living. Sankwasa also reminded the NHE team that their objectives ought to be remained centred around the financing of housing for inhabitants of Namibia, translating this to housing delivery.
“Our nation faces a significant housing deficit, with many families residing in informal settlements due to a mismatch between the demand and supply in the housing market and the mistargeting of our efforts,” he stated.
Sankwasa said the NHE is currently perceived to mainly target the middle to high-income categories of citizens, calling on other stakeholders to aid in altering this perception by ensuring house delivery for all categories. To this, he noted that the NHE’s role in the formalisation of informal settlements and housing delivery in general is very critical.
NHE is expected to deliver 2,000 units as a target for the current financial period. However, Sankwasa noted that the enterprise will not meet the target if it continues delivering 191 houses a year.
“This cannot be achieved at the delivery pace reported here today, and I look forward to significant intervention from the Board and management to achieve reasonable numbers, notwithstanding the challenges,” he remarked.
Sankwasa also acknowledged the challenge of affordable land, saying a collective solution is required with stakeholders, particularly local authorities, who are the custodians of land. He also directed that land currently occupied by residents in informal settlements be allocated to residents at no cost to enable them to construct decent shelters for themselves, as the sectors facing a critical housing shortage are the lower to ultra-lower income brackets of the economy.
NHE has secured N$1.5 billion in funding from the Development Bank of Southern Africa to fulfil its mandates. It has also been reported that under the review period, 490 building plans were approved by local authorities.
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