Malawi President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera on Monday launched an ambitious Project 250 with a promise to construct 250, 000 by 2030 houses to address housing challenges in Malawi.
Speaking when the presided over a National Housing Symposium in Lilongwe, Chakwera lamented shortage of decent accommodation for civil and public servants.
“That’s why today I thought it wise to start building houses for Malawians. Demographers told us that there is a need for 250, 000. So today I am happy to announce the beginning of this project, which we call Project 250. So since I don’t want to just lay foundation stones, what you need to know is that this ceremony does not mean that this project will be started in the future no. By the day like today of the opening ceremony of this project, we have already started this project, and the first 500 houses are in progress,” he said.
President Chakwera also announced that his administration has started constructing an office complex for Malawi Housing Corporation, stressing that strong office is critical for the effectiveness of the corporation.
“In order for it to work well in the maintenance of these houses, today I have started the project to build an office block for the Malawi Housing Corporation so that we can start it too, because this first project to build 250,000 houses is an important project for the Malawi Housing Corporation strong in wanting to finish my term in the year 2030, we will have prepared a long term,” he said.
At this point, the Malawi leader faulted erstwhile governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for ripping off Malawians through the Decent and Affordable Housing Programme.
Chakwera said it was sad that the DPP politburo used the programme to enrich themselves.
“It’s not that the vision was bad, because the lack of houses roofed with iron sheets is a big problem, but the problem is that the leaders who promised this failed to do it. Instead of giving the Malawians the cheap iron sheets to build decent houses, we hear that some of them were accumulating bags of cement for themselves through illegal means,” said Chakwera.