KAMPALA – The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) on Thursday launched a housing project from which they expect to collect Shs26 billion as revenue.
Citadel Place, which is located in Mbuya, Kampala, comprises four-bedroom apartments, swimming pool, Wi-Fi and gym, among other amenities and each apartment goes for Shs650m.
The NSSF managing director, Mr Richard Byarugaba, said they spent Shs14b on building the 40 units. He said they are targeting Ugandans living in the diaspora, socialites and possibly retirees to buy the apartments.
“This is Mbuya so the land is expensive. We had to do the roads including to Kinawataka. We had to connect to the main sewers almost two kilometres away and set up a transformer. So the cost of infrastructure constitutes about 40 per cent of the project and 60 per cent is what we put in the building,” he said.
He said their investment in real state is prompted by the fact that Uganda has a housing shortage of about 2 million units in urban areas.
State Minister for Finance in charge of General Duties Gabriel Ajedra, who launched the project on Thursday, urged NSSF to must provide low-cost housing.
“They [NSSF] need to look at the high-end, mid and low end options so that Ugandans can afford any of the houses,” he said.
Mr Byarugaba promised to look into the matter with future projects in place.
NSSF will next year undertake the Temangalo housing project where they expect to build 5,000 affordable housing units.