Angola launches $50bn housing plan
2010-08-05 21:11
Luanda - Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos renewed a $50bn pledge on Thursday to build one million new homes for the poor, despite growing signs of weakness in the major African oil-producer's public finances.
The announcement comes days after his government slashed its 2010 economic growth forecast to 6.7% from 9.7% and admitted it owed up to $9bn in unpaid bills to foreign construction firms.
But at an open meeting with governors from Angola's 18 provinces, dos Santos said his government now had the funds to re-launch the ambitious housing plan.
"Despite delays, the government can now renew its promise to create the necessary conditions for Angolan families to own their own home," dos Santos said.
The government would work in partnership with private construction firms, he said, adding that each new house would cost no more than $60 000. That cost would be far out of reach for ordinary Angolans, and it is unclear whether the government will subsidise purchases.
A two-bedroom apartment in Luanda can cost up to $1m, with prices fuelled by the country's oil boom.
The four-year housing plan was first announced in 2008 after the ruling MPLA party won a landslide parliamentary victory.
The MPLA promised at the time to improve the lives of Angola's 16.5 million people, many of whom live in squalid shantytowns without running water or electricity.
With general elections scheduled for 2012, dos Santos and his ministers face growing pressure to deliver on their promises in a country where an estimated two-thirds of the population earns less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank.
Last year, hundreds of people evicted from shanty towns around Luanda to make way for new multi-million dollar real-estate projects marched to the city centre to demand compensation.
Most of those living in the slums surrounding Luanda came from the countryside after Angola's 27-year civil war ended in 2002. The capital city is home to more than 5 million people, or one third of the nation's population.