Shelter Afrique development loan

completed

The Shelter Afrique development loan project includes a 10-year FC development loan of USD 50 million to Shelter Afrique. Shelter Afrique is a supranational financial institution based in Nairobi, Kenya, to promote housing construction for middle and low-income earners in Africa. It was founded in 1982 with the mission of financing housing in Africa and today has 44 African states and two supranational companies (African Development Bank and African Reinsurance Corporation) as shareholders. Shelter Afrique finances construction projects directly with loans to local real estate developers and state housing institutions, and indirectly through banks and microfinance institutions. To a lesser extent, Shelter Afrique also invests equity in housing projects and in real estate funds for affordable housing. In addition to financial resources, Shelter Afrique also provides the technical expertise needed to build housing units for middle and low-income earners. Due to persistently high population growth, rapidly increasing urbanization and low numbers of new buildings, there is a housing need on the African continent in the mid-double-digit millions. In Nigeria alone, the supply gap is estimated at 17 million, in Ghana at 1.6 million, in Uganda at 1.5 million, in Zimbabwe at 1.3 million, in Zambia at 1.3 million, in Tanzania at 0.9 million and in Ivory Coast at 0.6 million housing units. Due to the lack of affordable housing, a large part of the African population lives in slums and other informal settlements, with great health risks and little opportunity for education, development and social advancement. The task of Shelter Afrique is to alleviate this housing shortage in the 44 African shareholder states by providing medium and long-term financial resources, in which the institution is supported by the promotional loan. It is passed on in the form of individual loans to private and state real estate developers, banks and microfinance institutions.