SIGNING OF PROJECT FINANCE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT BETWEEN NIPAM AND KEETMANSHOOP MUNICIPALITY


NIPAM and the Keetmanshoop Municipality have signed a partnership agreement to service 390 residential plots in two of the Keetmanshoop townships, namely Westdene and Krönlein. Keetmanshoop Municipality through expert facilitation by NIPAM are looking at sourcing funding estimated at N$ 60 million from various strategic financial sources to finance the project.
In terms of the partnership, Keetmanshoop Municipality has appointed NIPAM as Project Managers to amongst others to conduct housing market studies, prepare funding proposals and obtain relevant regulatory approvals to ensure the successful implementation of the project.
NIPAM introduced a tailor-made training programme on ‘Project Finance for Regional and Local Authorities’. The programme aims to sensitise the regional councils and local authorities on project finance as a financing alternative mechanism for delivering land servicing and afford­able housing. The local authorities can do this by borrowing money from the financial institutions, on a stan­dalone basis with the financiers relying on future cash flows as the primary source of repayment (cash flows from the sales of serviced land) rather than making use of the Local Authority balance sheet.
According to NIPAM’s Exective Director Ms Maria N. Nangolo, the Keetmanshoop Municipality requested NIPAM for assistance in the development of the feasibility and concept to accelerate servicing of land through project finance.

“This partnership represents a starting point of this initiative and journey which is guided by national interest and respective mandates of the joint institutions. Through this journey, we intent to create and document lessons to be learnt, create case studies which will serve as a blueprint for the future and also as a key contribution to the body of knolwdge in the discipline of public administration”.

Project finance is aimed at assisting public entities (including but not limited to regional and local authorities) with professional and expert support required to ensure due diligence in project establishment as well as in project monitoring and evaluation. The focus is specifically on revenue-generating projects. This partnership is a major milestone, a trendsetter and a pilot project that will set a footprint for the rest of the municipalities and local authorities to follow.