NHA confronted with challenges

The Management of the National Housing Authority or NHA says the civil conflict in the country negatively impacted the entity’s housing development between 1996 and 2014.

Mr. T. Maxwell Davis, Director of Public Affairs at the NHA, told reporters in Monrovia during a recent interview that in June 2012, a program for the Construction of 5,000 Affordable Housing Units and the Creation of a Home Ownership and Mortgage Program was formulated by the NHA, in collaboration with the Housing Sector Working Group.

Maxwell noted that due to financial constraints, the NHA  only 128 housing units were constructed during the period under review, stressing that plans were underway to construct a 125 unit modern and affordable housing estate in Ben Town, Margibi County, along the Marshall Road.

An additional 35 units, as extension to the 58 units at its Gobah Town Brewerville Estate will be done.  

Mr. Davis indicated that in the last decade, there were partnerships between the NHA and the National Oil Company of Liberia or NOCAL, as well as the National Social Security and Welfare Corporation or NASSCORP for funding for the construction of 88 housing units in Montserrado, Lofa, Nimba and Grand Bassa Counties.  

He added that the Central Bank of Liberia also provided US$10 million dollars to the Liberia Bank for Development and Investment or LBDI for financing and housing development initiatives in Liberia, noting that to-date, several Liberians were tapping into the CBL fund to secure loans for housing construction, mortgage. 

 Mr. Davis further indicated that the National Housing Authority was established by an Act of the National Legislature on April 7, 1960, as a specialized autonomous housing development agency of the state with the mandate of planning and implementing housing development programs across the country. 

 He noted that in order to achieve its mandate, the NHA was tasked to conduct socio-economic surveys that would determine the shelter needs of the society and direct housing development programs, adding that the agency was also charged with the responsibility to set standards to guide housing development, as well as institute regulations for maintenance. 

By Ben P. Wesee