Lack of finance hinders the progress of a national agency

THE National agency that is primarily engaged in conducting and researching on appropriate building materials for low cost housing development schemes in the country is faced with insufficient money to enable it to consolidate on its basic activities. This is the National Housing and Building Research Agency (NHBRA) which was formed in 2001. The agency is among the national agencies established in the country under the Executive Act of Agency No: 30 passed by the National parliament in 1997. Due to the persisting situation, the agency’s core business activities that includes together with others, to develop simple production techniques and technologies for low cost building materials has been slowing down an aspect that it fails to meet its targeted goals. Because of this, the agency is staggering to effectively execute the normal duties it’s charged with in light of development of the construction industry in the country, the firm’s Chief Executive Dr. G.M. Kawishe said in an interview recently in Dar es Salaam. Dr. Kawishe who is an engineer by profession said, apart from lack of enough fund to run with the activities, the Agency has been facing some of the challenges from making her services known to the public, citing lack of seriousness despite of stressing awareness on the part of customers about the products and various services the agency offers.
He said, his agency is seriously faced with the shortage of skilled personnel mostly civil and building engineers adding that the few available are not enough to carry out the impending duties assigned such like, testing of building materials and structures including quality control in the laboratory and site investigations. Another thing he said, the agency is still using an outdated laboratory which it had inherited from the then Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development for which the agency before its formation was known as a Building Research Unit. The laboratory had been there since 1975 and needs replacement in order to match parallel with the currently emerging technologies. However, he noted that the status of the laboratory does not match with the modern technology. Price fluctuation of building materials eg cement is another factor which has hindered the development of the agency. When contacted for comment, an official from the Ministry of Finance and Economic planning who spoke on strict condition of anonymity said that, the government allocates funds for its agencies each year depending on the nature of the work in pipeline. However, he said these projects are given priority in terms of their urgency that is determined by the requirement of the people in the country, but declined to say anything when asked to comment on NHBRA’s issue. Apart from ensuring low-cost housing materials, NHBRA provides advice and promotes appropriate building materials, techniques and technologies in order to achieve the durability, the standards of hygiene, the comfort and conveniences of the houses. The current functions of NHBRA are in line with the National Human Settlement Development Policy of 2000 and Habitat Agenda of 1997. The agency targets Tanzania’s development set ups and cope with various initiatives of the poverty alleviation strategies for 2025 vision. In doing this, NHBRA has set strategies for business options and plans which will improve provision of services to customers in order to be effective, efficient and timely.