- To construct 20,000 houses in five- year
ADDIS ABABA – Empowered by government reforms that increased its revenue, the Federal Housing Corporation (FHC) announced its significant contributions to the development of the construction industry while striving to build 20,000 houses.
Improving profits by implementing large scale housing construction projects and highly contributing to the development of the construction industry in introducing a new technology in the country, FHC CEO Reshad Kemal told journalists recently the enterprise has shown remarkable achievements in implementing projects and housing administration through meticulous planning and a holistic organizational reform.
He noted that the high demand of housing is among the pressing challenges in capital, in which, the corporation is making preparation to construct over 20,000 modern housing complexes in the coming five years for the communities of different economic level.
Currently the Corporation is undertaking the construction of multipurpose apartment buildings at 8 different sites located at prime areas in the Addis Ababa and beyond, he stated.
“Our modern village project, a residential complex constructed using advanced building technology, has contributed to the construction industry by introducing a new technology that significantly improves the safety, efficiency, and productivity of large-scale construction projects,” he said.
He said one of the great achievements of the corporation is the inauguration of its Construction Materials Manufacturing Center that produces concrete blocks, road tiles and terrazzo in quantity and quality aimed at feeding the local market and ensuring construction materials import substitution.
The factory can operate a cooling system saw 24/7, producing 9,072 blocks daily, or over 2.6 million annually, even with an 8-hour shift. By running a single 8-hour shift weekly, the factory can generate over a million Birr in annual revenue while doubling the shift could potentially yield 2.3 billion Birr, he added.
By doing so, the CEO believed that the corporation will increase its annual revenue by seven-fold, which is crucial to generate finance for housing development projects.
The recently inaugurated manufacturing center has the potential to supply construction materials to the domestic demand and it would generate 4 billion Birr annual revenue before tax when it gets fully operational, Reshad said.
The factory is getting a reliable supply of raw materials like pebbles and black stone cloak from Aleltu and pumice cloak from Ada’a areas, he indicated.
FHC is a state-owned enterprise administering many government houses by renting multistorey residential and commercial properties, warehouses, partitioned dwellings and more, he said, adding that the corporation is engaged in maintenance, city redevelopment, and green development activities.
BY MISGANAW ASNAKE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2024
