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Shelter Afrique, the Pan-African financier dealing exclusively with the development of affordable housing in Africa, has reacted to reports of cracks and building deficiencies at its joint venture project with Everest Limited.
The financier has stated that while it takes the welfare and safety of all the affected seriously, it was also equally important to set the record straight. Everest Park was developed with Everest Limited as a joint venture to which Shelter Afrique is a shareholder. Therefore Shelter Afrique as a separate entity does not have a mandate to manage the development. Shelter Afrique as a shareholder has exited the development, having completed the contractual six months’ quality control period.

Additionally, it should be noted that the cracks in the buildings are isolated to two blocks of which these cracks are recent manifestations, and residents have been living on the property for four years.

It was further revealed by the financier, that the developers have followed due process and has always cooperated with the National Construction Authority, National Building Inspectorate and the County Government.The inspection report is meant to be submitted ten days from the date of inspection; the inspection took place on the 18th of September 2017, a decision on how to resolve these matters cannot be taken before then.

Addressing reports of incurring a loss on the property, Shelter Afrique & Everest Limited, stated that this reporting was erroneous and should be corrected. The first phase of the development has been completely sold, and residents have taken ownership of the property.

It should also be considered that Shelter Afrique & Everest Limited have held meetings with directors of the Manager, Everest Park Management Limited Everest Park, on the 28th July 2017 and the 18th August 2017 in which the matter of the inspection by the NCA and the County Government was noted to be ongoing.

While remaining resolute that the facts of the matter be properly represented, Shelter Afrique, however, conceded that homeownership is a deeply personal matter and the safety, well-being and quality of life of the residents remain paramount. Shelter Afrique & Everest Limited have convened meetings with all stakeholders to address concerns as they wait for the inspection report to be filed.

Shelter Afrique, the Pan-African finance institution exclusively supporting the development of affordable housing and real estate sector in Africa and UN-Habitat, the United Nations agency responsible for Human Settlement and Housing have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which will see collaboration on delivering on the New Urban Agenda.
The New Urban Agenda is an action-oriented document which sets global standards of achievement in sustainable urban development, rethinking the way countries build, manage, and live in cities. It was signed in October 2016 in Quito, Ecuador at the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development – Habitat III.
The MoU which was signed during the 26th General Council of UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya will see the two organisations work towards the delivering of an ambitious agenda for affordable housing on the continent. The ceremony which took place during a side-event at the 26th GC was attended by government and senior representatives of member countries and staff of Shelter Afrique as well as the staff of UN-Habitat.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Acting Managing Director for Shelter Afrique, Mr. Femi Adewole highlighted similarities in the New Urban Agenda and Shelter Afrique’s strategic vision for delivering impact on the continent. He remarked, “We are committed to this [action] because the the scale of the challenges that face us as a continent, require ambition, dedication and commitment”.
He continued “Our commitment to delivering on the objectives of the New Urban Agenda has always been resolute and frankly at this time for us as an organisation, necessary, but today we take the first of what will be many steps in realising it. We do this, also, in the expectation that our shareholders and members will match our commitment to delivering these objectives and use Shelter Afrique as the instrument for implementation.”
The MoU between the two organisations is set to deliver on the creation of a funding mechanism for housing and housing-related infrastructure in Africa by 2018 which will aim to raise a total of $1 billion by 2020. It will also elaborate a Pan-African Slum Eradication program based on best practices and successfully implement such a program in 20 countries by 2021.
Shelter Afrique and UN-Habitat also want to jointly create a coalition of large employers in Africa to implement “Employer Sponsored Housing Programs in Africa”. The programme should pledge to produce 100,000 housing units by 2020.
In addition to this, the two organisations expect to create a Rental Housing Promotion Initiative that will influence regulation and create the enabling environment for Rental Housing in Africa. Lastly, the organisations also want to immediately address the creation of a 360-degree Housing Policy Review to provide feedback to governments on policy flaws and Gaps and establish a monitoring mechanism to evaluate progress.
Speaking on behalf of African governments, Minister of Housing for Uganda, Hon. Chris Baroymunsi reaffirmed the commitment of African governments to the objectives of the New Urban Agenda and the success of both organisations. “I want to assure you that we will not pay lip-service to the goals set out today, I think I can speak on behalf of my colleagues on our commitment to the New Urban Agenda and Shelter Afrique. I will speak specifically for Uganda now; we have initiated several successful projects with Shelter Afrique and UN-Habitat. We rely on them for policy and implementation advice, and we have been grateful for their support, but we require ceremonies like this to recommit ourselves to the future of affordable housing in Africa”.
Shelter Afrique has announced it will hold its Annual General Meeting in July at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe; UN-Habitat is expected to also play a role at that meeting.

Shelter Afrique the Pan-African Housing Financier dealing exclusively with the promotion of affordable housing has received a capital injection from some of its shareholders. The capital injection follows on from the capital call on arrears made at the Extraordinary General Meeting held in Nairobi, in January.
Shelter Afrique revealed that Cameroon and African Reinsurance, an institutional shareholder have made payments totaling $5.8m, with Cameroon contributing $2.3m and Africa Re contributing $3.5m.
Speaking on the developments, Acting Managing Director, Femi Adewole, expressed his pleasure, “Our shareholders continue to show that Shelter Afrique is viable and indeed valuable. These capital subscriptions show that our member countries and shareholders understand how critical affordable housing is to the growth of the continent, and how Shelter Afrique can be instrumental to achieving that and the objectives of the new urban agenda that was passed in Quito last year.”
Shelter Afrique also revealed that other shareholders had made commitments to make their contributions before the end of the year. Namely, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Swaziland and Zambia are all committed to a collective $47.2 before the end of June 2017
It is understood, as well, that the company is actively courting Class C shareholders; a new category of shareholders which was passed by the General Assembly in January. The company is said to have begun promising negotiations with some interested parties.
Shelter Afrique noted that shoring up the financial base of the company is in line with the company’s turnaround plan and follows on from the recommendation of the independent forensic report which was commissioned by the board.
Shelter Afrique expects continual engagement with its shareholders and stakeholders, and as it continues to show the value, it plays in achieving affordable housing in Africa and the New Urban Agenda, the organisation is confident it will be able to report on more commitments by shareholders shortly.
Shelter Afrique is expected to hold its 36th Annual General Meeting in Zimbabwe in June 2017.

Shelter Afrique the Pan-African Housing Financier dealing exclusively with the promotion of affordable housing has announced the appointment of an Interim CFO & Board Change agent, in keeping with the resolutions from the Extraordinary General Meeting held in January and the recommendation of the forensic audit done by Deloitte.

Mr. Ray Davies, a Sierra Leonean national has been appointed as the Interim CFO and Mr. Dave Jennings, a South African national has been appointed as the Change Agent.

Mr. Davies is a chartered member of the Institute of securities and investment and brings over 40 years of experience in financial services, risk & advisory roles. He has wide experience across Africa and the world, having worked in The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Malawi, Lebanon and The United Kingdom, with companies like KPMG and Actis.

Mr. Jennings is a highly experienced executive with over 40 years of experience across Europe, America and Africa. He has worked in various executive positions, with specialisation in IT, Finance and operations. Mr. Jennings has experience of corporate finance transactions such as acquisitions, fund-raising (debt and equity) and disposals as well instrumental in floating an IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

Making the announcement in Nairobi, Acting Managing Director, Femi Adewole spoke on the efforts being made by current management to implement the recommendation of the audit, “We are very pleased we are able to attract world class talents like Mr. Davies and Mr. Jennings, who bring over 80 years of combined experience. They will be invaluable to our restructuring going forward. We as management, are very keen on making good on the pledges we made to our shareholders and lenders and in turn, making sure they honour their commitment to us. The recruitment of the interim executives is just another in our continuous step to strengthening the organisation”

The executives, who resumed duties in the first week of march are expected to be in place for a period of two months, which will coincide with the 36th Annual General Meeting at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Shelter Afrique however, noted that their appointments were subject to extension at the board’s discretion.

It is expected the the CFO and the Change agent will assist in complete implementation of the audit report, which stressed a review of internal processes and accounting standards. A process that has already begun under new management.

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.

 

Shelter Afrique the Pan-African finance institution exclusively supporting the development of affordable housing and real estate sector in Africa has signed an MoU with the Nigerian Police Force for the delivery of affordable housing units to the police force cooperative.

The MoU will see the parties come together to execute a housing programme with a 25000 benchmark in view, with the first phase delivering 3000 units between Abuja, Lagos, Ogun and five other operational zones. It is anticipated that the NPF will provide land for development and Shelter Afrique providing 70 per cent of debt financing.

The Nigerian Police force indicated that the rationale behind this was to improve the welfare and standard of living of its personnel through the provision of quality and affordable housing, they continued that they expect that increases in welfare would be proportional to increases in service delivery.

Shelter Afrique added that the project met all its key criteria, especially affordability and quality of design and product, they continued that they were especially keen to have the project delivered in a timely fashion.

The Mou also brings in Powerchina Kunming Engineering as the contractors for development, it is expected that the feasibility study for the first phase will be concluded in December 2015”.

Shelter Afrique the Pan-African finance institution exclusively supporting the development of affordable housing and real estate sector in Africa has signed an agreement with Devimco of DR Congo for the construction of a 7 -floor office building for rental purposes.
This is the fourth time that the two parties have entered into agreement, with Shelter Afrique having financed four landmark projects of Devmico’s, namely La Tradition, Le Concorde, L’Ambassadeur and Azda. Speaking on the agreement at the headquarters in Nairobi, the Managing Director of Shelter Afrique, Mr. James Mugerwa enthused on the possibilities real estate presented in the DRC, “This is the second time this year we will be making in-roads into the DRC, as you may recall we signed a USD10.6M deal with Raw Bank for on-lending in March. Our increased activity in the country is a reflection of the huge potential the country holds for real estate”.
Mugerwa also touched on the need for such partnerships for real estate to thrive, he remarked that the relationship between Devimco and Shelter Afrique is one that dates back to the 2008 and in that time four projects had been completed, he also mentioned that it was especially necessary in a country like the DRC where large scale developers were not readily available.
Mugerwa also called on government to play a bigger role in providing affordable housing to citizens, stating that DRC joined Shelter Afrique as a member in 2004 and in that time Shelter Afrique has gradually ramped up its presence, Mugerwa also revealed that DRC will play a strategic role in the operations of Shelter Afrique.
“We are currently retooling our strategy and soon we will roll out a strategy that sees us move closer to our market; we will be operating a regional office out of Kinshasa and we currently have an exposure of about USD 13.35 million in the DRC”.
The new Devimco project will be called Le 130 and is targeted at the Telecommunications, FMCG and Financial Services.

Shelter Afrique the Pan-African finance institution exclusively supporting the development of affordable housing and real estate sector in Africa, today, broke ground with partner Karibu Homes-Parktel at the Riverview Estate located in Athi River, Mavoko.
In attendance were the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Charity Ngilu, senior representatives from the Ministry of Lands, the Managing Director and senior management of Shelter Afrique, the founders of Karibu Homes-Parktel as well as senior representatives from Housing Finance, KCB, Rafiki DTM, Jamii Bora and Standard Bank.
Welcoming participants to the ground breaking ceremony, the Managing Director of Shelter Afrique Mr. James Mugerwa commented on his belief that projects of scale were necessary for affordable housing, adding “I have always personally felt that the housing sector would benefit largely from scalability; projects of scale; this is something that I am very passionate about and this is something I can assure you Shelter Afrique will be involved in going forward”.
1074 units will be constructed on the Riverview estate from prices ranging from KSH1.6M to KSH5M, with different products from turnkey to products which homeowners can finish themselves.
The project will be staggered in phases with work on the first phase already begun; the entire cost of the project is set at KSH 2.9bn with Shelter Afrique providing KSH540M for the first phase of development and funding for subsequent phases.
Addressing participants the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Mrs. Charity Ngilu commended Shelter Afrique and Karibu Homes-Parktel for the development but used the opportunity to challenge all stakeholders to do more, she went on to say “I would like to take the challenge to the management of Shelter Afrique, I want to see more and I am sure I speak for the people of Kenya, they want to see more”
The ground-breaking ceremony also featured the ceremonial laying of a cornerstone by the Cabinet Secretary, the Managing Director of Shelter Afrique and the Founders of Karibu Homes-Parktel.