ZNBS to give farm house mortgages
Written by Millennium on August 7, 2019
BUUMBA CHIMBULU writes
THE Zambia National Building Society (ZNBS) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to finance mortgages for construction of farm houses.
ZNBS Public Relations and Marketing Officer, Chanda Mubanga, announced in an interview at the just-ended 93rd Zambia Agricultural and Commercial Show, the mortgages would be undertaken under an agricultural project called Luswishi and will be worthy US$ 55,000 each.
Mr Mubanga said the project would be undertaken in Masaiti District, on the Copperbelt Province.
“We have a very active partnership with IDC right now because it has structures of land in Masaiti on the Copperbelt, where they are going to be carrying out various agro activities for individuals that are interested,” he said.
ZNBS, he explained, had entered into a strategic partnership approach which would help increase housing stock in the country through mortgage finance.
Mr Mubanga explained that the agriculture part of the project would be financed by partners that IDC had entered strategic partnerships with.
“There will be serious irrigation technology that is going to be applied at the project site and people are going to be buying these pieces of land or plots from IDC for a price as low as US$50,000 which is slightly over K600, 000 and that is a good buy for a piece of land that is going to have all these things,” he said.
Mr Mubanga said ZNBS was currently offering mortgages of up to one million for a 20 years tenure and interest rate of 21.6 percent provided customers met the requirements.
The aim of the project, he said, was to encourage Zambians to venture into agriculture in the interest of diversifying the economy.
“There is going to be a housing unit that is going to seat on one hectare of land and that housing unit is what we are interested in as ZNBS to finance the purchase of the housing unit through mortgages,” he said.
“We will also have other activities on that land, people will have a choice weather to put up agriculture activities like banana plantation, potato growing, fish farming, chicken raring, maize growing and other agriculture related activity depending on their skills and capabilities,” Mr Mubanga said.
