Shelter Afrique has announced plans to create a Sovereign Lending product to complement its existing products that address both the demand and supply sides of the housing value chain.
Shelter Afrique Ag. Managing Director Kingsley Muwowo said that Africa’s GDP contraction as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic was an alarming sign of a slump in many countries’ inclusive housing goals, and thus the need for the company to respond to the risk of possible government disengagement while revitalizing its financial agility.
“The pandemic has brought in an era of economic distress throughout Africa with an average of -3.6 per cent recession in 2020, the first recession in SSA in 25 years. In response, Shelter Afrique recently reviewed its corporate strategic plan with the aim of aligning itself to its members’ priorities and positioning the company for better performance and enhanced development impact,” Muwowo said.
Currently, the Company provides a variety of products and services to support the delivery of affordable housing and commercial real estate, including project finance, institutional lending, equity investments & joint ventures, trade finance, and social housing.
Muwowo was speaking at the Company’s three-day in-house capacity building on sovereign lending, which was facilitated by the African Development Bank’s training arm, the African Development Institute.
Shelter Afrique intends to use training to increase its capacity for absorbing funds from anticipated new business development, carry out product design and development, and support the organization’s various departments to ensure the product is developed and executed effectively.
“Internally, these activities will be executed through experts in various departments in liaison with the African Development Institute to ensure the product is well in line with the market needs of our member States,” Muwowo said.
Chidozie Emenuga, Divisional Manager of the African Development Institute, stated that the partnership with Shelter Afrique was part of the Africa Development Bank Group’s commitment to increase its efforts to help Africa overcome capacity constraints.
“Capacity development is key to realizing major development goal including the SDGs- which encompasses housing for all, the Addis Ababa Accord on Accelerating Development Financing, the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and national development goals of African countries,” Emenuga said.
