Category: news-room-2016

Shelter Afrique, the Pan African Housing Institution exclusively supporting the development of affordable housing and real estate sector in Africa, has signed a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding with the Housing Bank of Senegal [BHS].

The MoU that was signed at the Shelter Afrique headquarters in Nairobi, will see the two institutions strengthen their existing relationship, speaking at the signing ceremony the Managing Director, James Mugerwa stated that Senegal has always been an integral part of operations at Shelter Afrique; “We have a long and storied history of fostering housing developments in Senegal; our first project in the Republic of Senegal was in 1989, and in the last 25 years we have remained committed to financing Real Estate projects that promote innovation and affordability. BHS is part of that history, we have entered into agreements before to co-finance a project, so there is good precedence”

The agreement will see Shelter Afrique work towards the establishment of an investment fund and explore the option of syndicated financing or co-financing of projects of common interest in Senegal. BHS on its part will assist in pre-selection and screening of developers and projects that meet Shelter Afrique’ s investment guidelines.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Bocar Sy, the Managing Director, added that he was happy to once again be associated with Shelter Afrique, “We are happy to note that Shelter Afrique is entering into a new strategic cycle, BHS has just launched its own strategic cycle, so we can identify with your objectives. It is our hope that the collaboration will not be limited to just financing, which is necessary, but we hope that we can benefit from your technical expertise and labour exchange programs, as we consider Shelter Afrique home”.

The MOU is expected to be the first phase of increased activities between the two organisations and be a key part of the Senegalese strategy going forward for Shelter Afrique.

The MOU will see the housing financier dramatically expand its operations and activities across Africa, having just launched the 5000 FOR 5000 housing completion at its recently concluded Annual General Meeting in Nigeria, the competition is challenging developers to design a model for USD5000 per unit and Shelter Afrique will commission 5000 units. Additionally, Shelter Afrique has just signed on to deliver 20,000 housing units for Police in Kenya in collaboration with the African Development Bank. The housing financier has also opened its regional office in Abidjan and will be officially launching the office before the end of August, Shelter Afrique is also expected to begin its developer masterclass in Cameroun by September.

Note to Editors

About Shelter Afrique

Shelter Afrique (SHAF) is the only Pan-African finance institution that exclusively supports the development of the housing and real estate sector in Africa. A partnership of 44 African Governments, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Africa Reinsurance Company, Shelter Afrique builds strategic partnerships and offers a host of products and related services to support the efficient delivery of affordable housing and commercial real estate.

Shelter Afrique the Pan-African finance institution exclusively supporting the development of the housing and real estate sector in Africa has received an USD8.2m injection of equity by the African Development Bank.

This news comes in the wake of the financier revealing a 25MUSD deal with the Islamic Development Bank and announcing a new strategy to dramatically increase its capital base.

In a statement released by the African Development Bank, the injection is meant to strengthen its balance sheet and help achieve its objective of providing quality affordable housing in Africa. The statement further highlighted the confidence the bank had in the future of the continent and the implications it had for housing; the statement reads:
“Africa’s economic landscape remains positive with promising scope for growth; Gross Domestic Product remains robust supported by multiple factors. The continent’s growing population, a growing middle class and the fastest urbanization rate in the world are some of the factors driving increased demand for affordable houses and housing finance”

Speaking on the development from the Nairobi headquarters, the Managing Director, James Mugerwa commented on the equity increase as a sign of confidence in the institution “The African Development Bank has sent strong signals about the seriousness of housing on the continent, and by extension the seriousness of what we do here at Shelter Afrique, it is a welcome development but we see it as a challenge as well. This equity increase means the AfDB wants to see more, they want to see impact and scale and that is what we will be aiming for this year; impact”.

The AfDB has stated that the investment is well aligned to AfDB’s Ten Year Strategy for the period 2013-2022, as well as one of the Bank’s High Strategic Priorities of “Improving the Lives of People in Africa”.
On its part Shelter Afrique has stated this milestone is in keeping with the strategic goal of becoming an investment grade organization and increasing the loan-book to 1Bn by 2020.

With the increase equity, the AfDB a Class B shareholder has become the largest shareholder in the organization, making the housing financier an unofficial subsidiary of the AfDB. Shelter Afrique is owned by 44 African Sovereign shareholders categorized as Cl

Shelter Afrique the Pan-African finance institution exclusively supporting the development of affordable housing and real estate sector in Africa announces that Gleenwood Gardens, a project financed by Shelter Afrique has started development.

It will be recalled that a ground-breaking ceremony for the project was carried out last year to signal the partnership between Shelter Afrique and Kings Pride for a total of 440 units in Ruaka and Kiambu respectively. The total amount for the deal announced last year was Ksh2.6b, however the Glenwoods project in Ruaka will consist of 240 Units.
The units start in price from KSH5.5M and consist of 2 & 3 bedroom apartments, and the amount of Shelter Afrique’s commitment is Ksh550m.

Speaking from the Nairobi headquarters, Managing Director, Mr. James Mugerwa, commented on the necessity of finding suitable and able partners with whom to carry out the task of providing affordable housing. He noted, “The impression is that the market is saturated, and that is only true for the top tier of the market, we still have some ways to go to providing affordable housing. Not just affordable as well, but quality, and in achieving that, the market narrows when you need to find able developers, that is why this is a welcome sign”.
It will be recalled that Shelter Afrique recently announced the development of Everest Park Phase ll, a joint venture project, Mugerwa commented on this “To achieve scale, something we have set as our target this year, we need consistency, so you should expect to hear a lot more from us this year. We hope this also serves as a clarion call for developers as well, anyone who has capacity and is interested in projects of scale, we are open and ready to pushing the housing agenda”

The project is expected to be completed by July 2017.