Kinshasa, October 5th, 2021 (CPA).– The Minister of State in charge of Urban Planning and Housing, Pius Muabilu Mbayu Mukala, affirmed that housing is at the heart of the urban planning policy advocated by the President of the Republic, Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, and constitutes the central key to urban planning.
Minister of State Muabilu declared this in his address to the nation, on the occasion of International Habitat Day, celebrated on October 4th of each year and placed, internationally, under the theme: » Accelerate urban action for a carbon-free world ”and at the national level:“ Promote carbon-free peri-urban cities ”.
« The more we build affordable housing in large numbers, the more we will create centralities, nuclei of controlled urban growth and the development of our population, » said the minister of state. To achieve this, he continued, the government, under the leadership of the Head of State, has opted for cities that are integrated, viable, decent and open to all.
Pius Muabilu has, on the occasion, invited the population to unite for projects of healthy and inclusive towns, which his ministry has designed for the benefit of the towns of Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu; Bukavu, capital of the province of South Kivu; Matadi, capital of Kongo Central province as well as Kikwit, capital of Kwilu province, through the development of Urban Reference Plans, with funding from the World Bank. To unite also for combine efforts to make our cities capable of developing their own social and economic projects, which are the basis for financing their own housing, equipment and infrastructure programs.
But also to support itself on the use of local building materials, the experimentation of the standards decreed by the new law on rental leases, in particular the respect of the rental guarantee of three months of rent accompanied by a repressive regime, in to ensure social tranquility and by working to ensure the upgrading of housing police officers in order to fight against unsanitary housing and neighborhoods.
Beneficial partnership between the government and Shelter Afrique
Driven by the desire to create integrated, viable, decent and open cities, announced Pius Muabilu, the government headed by Prime Minister SAMA LUKONDE, has obtained the return of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the bosom of Shelter Afrique, a pan-African technical and financial institution for the construction and promotion of affordable housing.
This firm will soon reopen a Country office in Kinshasa, and will provide the DRC, in the short term, with funds to develop our interventions as quickly as possible for the benefit of the promotion and construction of decent and affordable housing.
Also, the government of the Republic, through the Ministry of Town Planning and Housing, is making every effort to operationalize the Congolese Agency for Real Estate Promotion (ACOPRIM) and the National Housing Fund (FONHAB).
As a reminder, International Habitat Day was promulgated by the United Nations General Assembly, through a resolution of December 17, 1985. This day is celebrated on the first Monday of October each year.ACP/
