National Building Society launches Bulawayo branch Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko and guests share a toast at the official opening of the Bulawayo branch of the National Building Society in this file photo
Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko and guests make a toast at the official opening of the National Building Society Bulawayo branch yesterday

Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko and guests make a toast at the official opening of the National Building Society Bulawayo branch yesterday

Oliver Kazunga ,Senior Business Reporter
THE establishment of the National Building Society (NBS) will create thousands of jobs in the economy directly and indirectly through various construction projects, National Social Security Authority (NSSA) board chairman, Robin Vela said yesterday.

Wholly owned by NSSA, NBS was created in line with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe minimum capital requirements of $25 million.

The bank’s mandate is to ensure low income earners from across the country have affordable housing through mortgage loans.

Mortgage loans from NBS will have an interest rate of less than 10 percent with a maximum tenure of 25 years.

In an interview after the launch of NBS branch in Bulawayo, Vela said they have so far been approached by a number of companies that seek to provide building material.

“A lot of people that are approaching us are saying ‘we (the companies) do tiles, can we have a contract to do tiles.’ We’re saying if we’re to deliver 10,000 houses that’s a lot of people that will go to work.

“We want to ensure that employment is created through this initiative, remember creation of employment also creates a downstream benefit to us as NSSA,” he told Business Chronicle.

“The more people who are employed, the more contributions we get, and the bigger the contributions, the more funds we manage. And we’ll be able to recycle the dollar so that more and more affordable housing is availed.”

Vela said the release of funding to NBS would be based on the building society’s ability to deliver.

“They (NBS) before we release money for their activities, have to show us that the money has been used properly. And if that doesn’t happen, we’ll not continue to fund them,” he said.

The building society already has a long list of companies that are seeking mortgage financing arrangements to their workers.

Asked whether there will be no queues at NBS as seen at most financial institutions, Vela said: “The reality is we’re starting.  The long queues that you see at some of the banks is driven by the current liquidity issues within the country.”

He said the building society will adhere to excellent customer services.

“What NBS is trying to do is to ensure that customer services are at the fore front, so as you come through in the branch there is a ticket machine where customers are given ticket numbers for the services they require. It’s not about waiting in queues haphazardly.”

Vela said the ticket machine was one of the latest technologies that NBS is using to enhance customer service.

It is hoped that the establishment of NBS would see the building society leveraging on NSSA’s presence across Zimbabwe.

“A lot of building societies aren’t setting offices but are reaching out through agents’ arrangements and we’re also going that route where people will have to utilise NSSA staff where the staff will also do data capturing and send it to a central location.

“The idea is to save money as setting branches is expensive,” he said.

By actually buying a house through mortgage financing, Vela said home seekers would end up owning a property compared to paying rentals.
It is hoped that NBS would have a positive impact to the government’s economic blue-print, Zim-Asset, which targets to provide 300,000 houses by 2018.

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