N$13m office block ready at Okongo

The Okongo village council, which has been operating at a maternity home for nearly three years, will relocate to its new offices next month, which were constructed at a cost of N$13 million.The Josua Hanyango Maternity Waiting Home has doubled as its offices since the former settlement was proclaimed a village in 2015.The maternity home was built in 2014 by the office of former first lady Penehupifo Pohamba, with assistance from the United Nations, to accommodate pregnant women who flock to the town to give birth at the local district hospital.According to village council CEO, Wodibo Haulofu, since the pregnant women were not fully utilising the facility, and due to a lack of proper facilities in the town, the council decided to occupy three sleeping rooms.“Some of the council's employees are operating from constituency offices, while others, including myself, are operating from the maternity waiting home, while our offices were being constructed,” Haulofu said.“Now that the construction of our offices is completed we are relocating next month and we will leave the expecting women to have their freedom and peace.”He said the maternity home had not been suitable, but they had no other alternative.The village council has 24 employees.Haulofu said the new village council offices had been constructed by Shivute Construction and Conselect Engineering.He said the offices had been completed within the agreed timeframe. “This is our first step in the right direction. The next project we would like to embark on will be the construction of the fire brigade (station) and the procuring of firefighting equipment. The town is growing and we need to protect our investors and residents.“Last year Oshela Secondary School was burning and we were just looking on haplessly. Eenhana and Nkurenkuru, where there is firefighting equipment, are far away from us,” Haulofu said.Haulofu added the village is full of big dreams, but faces the slow implementation of capital projects, due to budget cuts.He said the council does not have money at this stage, and depends on central government for all its projects and administrative operations.“We are faced with the challenges of land delivery for housing and industrial developments, delayed assistance on land and property valuations for compensation purposes, due to budgetary constraints, delayed training on the implementation the modalities of the new Public Procurement Act and (a lack of) staff capacity, due to restrictions by the line ministry,” he said.He said the government needs to avail more funds, which will enable them to implement projects with their planned periods.ILENI NANDJATO

N$13m office block ready at Okongo

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-04

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N$13m office block ready at Okongo

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-04

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