KAMPALA; Thursday, September 8, 2022: President Yoweri Museveni has today launched NSSF’s USD 400 million housing project, named Solana Lifestyle & Residences, located at Lubowa, off Entebbe Road.
President Museveni also applauded the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) for its contribution to the socio-economic development of the country through their investments in real estate and other productive sectors of the economy.
Solana Lifestyle & Residences, is a self-sustaining satellite city with mixed-use housing and commercial developments on approximately 600 acres of the Fund’s owned land in Lubowa. The project will offer world class facilities to live, work, shop, stay and play.
When completed, it will be the largest project in East Africa, comprising of 2,750 residences, that is, apartments, townhouses, bungalows, and villas.
It will also comprise associated amenities, commercial retail space, office space, a school, a hospital, leisure and commercial centres, police and fire stations, places of worship, green buffer zones, a series of four parks along the riverine system, among others.
Additional services and infrastructure include electrical & street lighting, wastewater treatment plant, security & communication system, and a road network.
Construction of Phase 1 & 2 comprising of an initial 306 housing units and project infrastructure commenced in December 2017 and is ready for commissioning and sale.
“It is gratifying to see that NSSF is committed to contributing to the national development agenda of addressing housing and employment challenges through its real estate investment projects. Government will continue supporting such investors like NSSF to help realize our development goals in the shortest time.” President Museveni said
NSSF Managing Director Richard Byarugaba said that the project’s contribution to the economy was demonstrated through the jobs created, infrastructure development and support to the local industries.
“We have invested close to USD31m on construction materials that have been sourced from local industries and have created over 1,500 direct jobs and 3,200 indirect jobs through construction of this project. These numbers will increase as we implement the next 8 phases” he said.
He added that the Fund’s decision to construct the Solana Lifestyle and Residences was largely informed by the growing need of formal housing developments fueled by rural urban migration.
Byarugaba also noted that construction of the project had faced immense challenges that included disputes in land ownership, fraud, stakeholder conflicts and infrastructure development. “Our approach then was to divide the construction in four lots to successfully implement the project. Lot 1 included construction of bungalows, construction of apartments units for the second lot, townhouses and villas in the third lot and infrastructure development in the fourth lot”
The project has so far been recognized with the 5-star award for Africa and Arab properties, Best Mixed used development in Uganda by the International Property awards and possesses the first green mark district certified eco development in Africa.
NSSF has also developed organized housing projects in Mbuya for high income earners, and affordable housing units for low-income earners in Kyanja and Temangalo.
Dr. Peter Kimbowa, the NSSF Chairman Board of Directors called on government to improve public infrastructure development to reduce the cost of construction of such large projects and ultimately reduce the final cost of housing to the home buyer.
ABOUT NSSF
The National Social Security Fund Uganda is a multi-Trillion Fund mandated by Government through the NSSF Act, Cap 222 (Laws of Uganda) to provide social security services to employees in the private sector.
The Fund is a secure, innovative, and dynamic social security provider that guarantees safety, security, and a competitive return on members’ savings of over 2% above the 10-year inflation average.
The Fund manages assets worth over UGX 17 Trillion invested in Fixed Income, Equities and Real Estate assets within the East Africa region. As the largest Fund in East Africa by value, we have the ambitious goal of growing our Assets Under Management to 20 Trillion by 2025.
Since 2012, the Fund is regulated by the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority while Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development is responsible for policy oversight.
For more information, please visit our website at
www.nssfug.org, www.facebook.com/nssfug, www.twitter.com/nssfug
