Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) - Gaborone - Botswana

Botswana Housing Corporation is a parastatal under the Ministry of Lands & Housing. The Corporation was established by an Act of Parliament (CAP 74.03) of 1971. In brief, the Corporation’s mandate as outlined under section 14 of the BHC Act is as follows:-

a) To provide for the housing, office and other building needs of the government and local authorities;

b) To provide for and to assist and to make arrangements for other persons to meet the requirements of paragraph (a).

c) To undertake and carry-out and to make arrangements for other persons to undertake and carry-out building schemes in Botswana.

MANDATE OF BHC

Explicit mandate

The Corporation’s Explicit mandate is outlined under section 14 of the BHC Act :-

a) To provide for the housing, office and other building needs of the government and local authorities;

b) To provide for and to assist and to make arrangements for other persons to meet the requirements of paragraph (a).

c) To undertake and carry-out and to make arrangements for other persons to Undertake and carry-out building schemes in Botswana.

Execution of the Explicit Mandate

This covers provision of housing to the general population through a variety of initiatives and structures such as:

Government housing pool;
Sales of houses to government and its agencies;
Provision of project management services
Undertaking housing projects for government departments such as the BDF, BURS etc.
Implicit mandate

The Corporation’s Implicit mandate is expressed through Government Policy pronouncements; Directives; Economic/business imperatives; Public & other social considerations.

Effective from 1st April 2012, the Corporation’s mandate has been expanded in accordance with Presidential Directive Cab 20 (B)/2010. The directive pronounced that all Government housing implementation programmes be transferred to BHC to operate as Government’s Single Housing Authority (SiHA). In compliance with the directive, BHC is as from 1st April 2012 responsible for the construction of turnkey SHHA projects as well as District Housing and other housing programmes pronounced by government from time to time such as the Public Housing Initiative and Youth Housing Initiative.

Execution of Implicit Mandate

In executing the Implicit mandate, the Corporation has to raise money through the market to sustain itself. For instance, 1990’s, government announced cessation of PDSF loans to parastatals. This meant that BHC had to do the following:

Raise money from financial markets;
Diversification of income stream
Reduced dependence on government