The National Housing Corporation (NHC), perhaps one of the most important state entities, is currently going through an overhaul to improve on its services to the people of Papua New Guinea, especially those wanting affordable housing.
Under the new Managing Director, Mr. Abel Tol the NHC is upskilling its workforce, and in the process of having its own digital platform, Corporate Plan and a new policy to go by.
Mr. Tol at the two-day 2nd Business Regulators Summit in Port Moresby this week said since taking up office in July 2023, he has sent NHC technical officers to get further training, even having some taking up courses at the Somare Institute of Leadership and Governance (SILAG).
In addition to that the NHC Board which sat today Friday 2nd August, is expected to soon endorse the NHC Policy to replace the 1994 one, and a review of the outdated NHC Act of 1990 to make more relevant to the address the various issues faced by the NHC over the years.
Mr. Tol said the creation of the NHC digital platform, putting it online, is one of the key pilar the NHC focusses on achieving going forward to make it a more modern, one stop shop for housing information and all necessary housing matters.
‘We are looking into digitalizing our processes and procedures,” said Mr. Tol.
“NHC has been operating manually since pre- independence, this goal to digitalize our process is one of our key pillars in the corporate plan that we are working on.”
To fully achieve this, Mr. Tol also stated that NHC will need to update its inventory of its properties nationwide.
‘We are working on our triple- V process; that is, Verification, Validate and Valuation.”
“We have almost more than 5, 000 properties throughout the country, but we don’t have a clear picture of what we actually know.”
That is why the NHC currently has teams out collecting data of its properties so to update its information on its own properties so to better make decisions going forward.
Mr. Tol said the NHC’s history has not be that good with a lot of incomplete projects, but he is adamant and focussed on improving the NHC.