The Ministry of Lands has outlined projects aimed at allocating 5000 plots in a space of five years to serve Malawians for residential, commercial and institutional development purposes.
This was revealed by the minister of Lands, Deus Gumba while addressing the minestirial statement during the commencement of the 2nd meeting of the national assembly in the 50th session of the parliament in Lilongwe.
Speaking on the sidelines of the session, Gumba highlighted the progress the ministry has made in creation of plots to meet the demand in urbans areas.
“I should say the President Dr Lazarus Chakwera’s administration is determined to have 5000 plots done within a period of five years spread across the country, about 1600 in the South, 1600 in the central and 600 in the north among others.
“The amended land law states that we cannot just grab land from people, we are supposed to pay about MK30 billion in total as compensation, of course as government we cannot have all the money at the same time, this will be more like a revolving fund since the same money people pay for development will also be used hence once we start, we shall move in the right direction,” he said.
Speaking on the same legislature for Zomba-Chisi, Mark Botomani expressed concern over the ministrys tendency of prioritising foreigners in allocation of plots in cities and called for change on the issue.
Said Bottomani; “My plea to the Minister was to assure the house that they will prioritise Malawians because land is a precious commodity so when foreigners are given prime land we suspect corruption but of course the Minister said according to the new Land Act Malawians are now a priority”.
Reported by Alex Splendor Ngulube