Plan to enable SMEs gain more from housing project

Tuesday, May 19, 2020 0:01

By BONFACE OTIENO

Hilda Kaaria, the Head of Supply Chain Management at the State Department of Housing and Urban Planning.

“MSMEs will play a leading role in the delivery of the 500,000 affordable housing units as envisioned by the government under the Big Four agenda,” Hilda Kaaria, the Head of Supply Chain Management at the State Department of Housing and Urban Planning, told Enterprise.

The government plan, Ms Kaaria said, is to boost local content development and ensure capacity building and up-skilling of local jua kali sector and other small businesses, as one of providing smart linkages through a digital platform dubbed Bomayangu.

Through the Specialy Permitted Procurement that is facilitated by the National Treasury, the state department has enabled the Affordable Housing Programme (AHP) to ensure transparency and openness by placing a call-for-applications which has attracted a lot of partners such as startups, developers, technology providers’ consortiums and financiers.

“The programme has created a framework that enables on-boarded strategic partners to build on listed government lands within the AHP (affordable housing plan), created a hub for all partners to come together and privately invest as well as enabling suppliers to transact while the government enables payments from developers to the MSMEs through facilitating the MoU signing,” Ms Kaaria said.