Zambia’s Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Rwanda regarding technical cooperation on the provision of mass affordable housing across Zambia as well as green housing.

The MoU includes raising awareness on housing development issues through collaboration in hosting national housing forums and other events aimed at promoting decent housing, settlement improvement, social-economic development, employment creation, climate resilience and sustainable communities.

During the MoU signing, Zambia’s National Housing Authority (NHA) invited the Rwandan authorities to take part in the country’s first National Housing Forum on 20-21 June in the capital city Lusaka.

Rwanda’s Ministry of Infrastructure and the Rwanda Housing Authority (RHA) have been requested to present their successes in the housing sector, including Integrated Development Projects (IDP) model villages, informal settlement upgrading projects and affordable housing schemes.

“...Projects such as the provision of affordable housing and production of local building materials have enabled the [Rwandan] government to not only provide decent affordable housing for the vulnerable in society but also enabled Kigali to attain the status of one of the cleanest and greenest cities in Africa and globally,” said Zambia's minister of infrastructure housing and urban development Charles Milupi.

Rwanda’s minister of infrastructure Jimmy Gasore said knowledge-sharing could help in mobilising low-cost finance to cater for the entire housing value chain.Gasore also noted that Zambia’s professional bodies in the built environment, especially the Engineering Institution of Zambia, have extensive operational experience and skills that Rwandan engineers can benefit from. Rwanda has a critical skills gap in areas such as sanitation engineering and services, which could be reduced through collaboration with Zambia.

Zambia has a housing deficit of about 1.5 million homes, which is projected to increase to 3.3 million by 2030.