Own a house quickly with a co-operative

PIC: Aloysius Ndibowa, the executive director of Nkokonjeru-Caritas Housing Co-operative Society, says 32 members within the community came together to form the society. (Credit: Abou Kisige)

HOUSING

As many Ugandans look forward to owning a home, others have decided to go about it the co-operative way.

Instead of individually bearing the burden of buying land, getting a site plan and materials, people are slowly waking up to the idea of forming housing co-operatives to share the cost.

Under the umbrella of Uganda Housing Co-operative Union, different housing co-operative societies subscribe to the union, which has its perks.

Aloysius Ndibowa, the executive director of Nkokonjeru-Caritas Housing Co-operative Society, says 32 members within the community came together to form the society.

He says each member paid sh500,000 for six months to raise money to buy four acres of land at sh16m.

It is on this land that the members have embarked on establishing an estate that will see all 32 of them own homes.

"The units will have a sitting room, two bedrooms, kitchenette and a bathroom," says Ndibowa.

He is grateful to the union for supporting them with training in different skills that will enable them to build their own houses.

The society also rented out two machines to make blocks on the site using red soil and cement in the ratio of 14 buckets to one. This reduces the cost of building because the blocks are not cured by burning, but by sprinkling water on them for a week.

Ndibowa says the interlocking blocks are easy to use, as they do not require cement to plaster the walls.