Economy is growing – Prof. Ncube

Bulawayo (New Ziana) – The construction of massive state of the art student hostels for the National University of Technology (NUST), at a cost of US$20 million, is a sign of a growing economy, Finance and Economic Development Minister, Prof. Mthuli Ncube has said.

He told New Ziana, after touring the facility on Monday, that the project had injected positive dynamism into the local and national economy as a whole, and would bring immense social benefits for the university community.

The project is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) and its partners in the private sector such as Old Mutual, the Motoring Industry Pension Fund (MIPF) and the Catering Industry Pension Fund (CIPF).

“When you see the size of this facility, I see economic growth. Imagine, the building materials which were used here and employment which was created here. It shows the construction industry is contributing overally to economic growth,” Prof. Ncube said.

“What is also interesting about this project is that it is a PPP in the sense that IDBZ being a public institution has partnered some players in the private sector such as Old Mutual and pension funds to construct this massive state of the art facility. The PPP shows how public institutions or government institutions can work closely with the private sector to tackle accommodation challenges,” he added.

Prof. Ncube said government aimed to ensure the country attained average economic growth of five percent throughout the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) period and hopes to maintain the same momentum in the second phase.

“We hope to maintain that (five percent level of economic growth) in the second part of the NDS as we drive towards 2030,” he said.

The new hostels, when completed, will house hundreds of NUST students, and help ease their financial and social problems related to accommodation.

Due to accommodation shortages around the university, landlords were over-charging desperate students, forcing some to engage in sex-for-rent arrangements.

At the hostels, students would be charged affordable rentals of US$100 per month, half the current going rates around the university.

“I am impressed by this massive project because it is going to fill a gap being experienced in terms of student accommodation. The demand for student accommodation is very high in the city,” Prof. Ncube said.

He said the student hostel model at NUST would be replicated at all universities around the country.

New Ziana