Shelter Afrique to support country’s housing sector

A Pan-African housing finance institution, Shelter Afrique, has indicated its interest to support the construction of 20,000 affordable housing units in Ghana.

The support will be in the areas of developing housing concepts, conducting feasibility studies and financing transactions and development structures.

Under the plan, Shelter Afrique will also work with the Ministry of Works and Housing to identify projects under an urban regeneration programme.

Additionally, the institution plans to provide lines of credit to local financial institutions for on-lending to projects promoted by small and medium-scale enterprise developers who would not qualify for direct financing from Shelter Afrique under its new strategy.

The Managing Director of Shelter Afrique, Mr Andrew Chimphondah, expressed the commitment of the company in an interview before he met the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, in Accra.

He is in Ghana to inspect some projects being sponsored by Shelter Afrique, which is based in Kenya.

Mr Chimphondah, who assumed office about a month ago, also used the opportunity to introduce himself as the new Managing Director of Shelter Afrique to the Ghana government and other captains in the works and housing sector.

His visit was also to demonstrate the commitment of Shelter Afrique to Ghana and to announce the organisation’s plans to develop a new pipeline of projects in Ghana.

“Our mid-term target is the delivery of 20,000 housing units by 2020,” he said.

Some of the housing units, especially two-bedroom houses, will cost $12,000 each and will be expected to help address Ghana’s housing deficit of 1.7 million units.

Shelter Afrique

Shelter Afrique, which is based in kenya, was established in 1982 and is owned by 44 African countries categorised as Class A shareholders and the African Development Bank and the African Reinsurance Corporation, categorised as Class B shareholders.

Since its establishment, the company has been at the forefront of investing in the real estate sector in member states in Africa.

It has over the years approved investments of $1.148 billion in the member states.

Ghana is the third largest shareholder after paying $6,315,000 in paid-up capital, representing 7.13 per cent of total share capital.

Kenya is the largest shareholder with 13.57 per cent, followed by Nigeria with 11.77 per cent.

Since joining the Shelter Afrique in November 2011, Ghana has received up to $55,650,000 approved investment for various real estate financing entities and real estate developers in the country.

“One of the success stories is the Ghana Home Loans. We are happy to see that it has thrived and grown into one of the leading mortgage banks in Ghana,” said Mr Chimphondah.

Ghana’s commitment

Briefing the Daily Graphic after holding a closed-door meeting with Mr Chimphondah, Mr Atta Akyea said he was happy Shelter Afrique had bounced back and was ready to partner the government to provide affordable housing to the public.

He said Shelter Afrique had a checkered history, but it was good the institution had reorganised itself to carry out its mandate.

Although Ghana had been behind in its payment of subscription as a member, Mr Atta Akyea gave the assurance that Ghana would do its best to pay up.