A housing Estate on the Riat Hills of Kisumu. Kenya is among three
Africa countries that are set to benefit from a Sh27 billion fund
launched Thursday to finance housing development. PHOTO | FILE
Kenya is among three Africa countries that are set to benefit
from a Sh27 billion fund launched Thursday to finance housing
development.
The fund was launched by the
International Finance Corporation (IFC), a private lending arm of the
World Bank and the Chinese multinational construction and engineering
firm CITIC, which is eyeing construction of over 30,000 units in the
next five years. Nigeria and Rwanda are the other two beneficiaries.
Under
the deal, CITICC (Africa) Holding Ltd will develop houses targeting the
middle class through partnership with local developers.
CITIC
construction is wholly -owned subsidiary of CITIC Group, the largest
conglomerate of China that was ranked 160 out of 500 Global Fortune
firms last year and had total assets of $760 billion by December, last
year.
“As sub-Saharan Africa become more urbanised, the
private sector will play a great role in assisting the governments in
transforming Africa’s housing markets by providing high quality,
affordable houses, creating jobs and demonstrating the viability of the
sector to local developers.
IFC will work with
financial institutions to support mortgages and housing finance will
allow people to purchase the units,” said IFC director for Eastern and
Southern Africa, Mr Oumar Seydi.
GREEN BUILDING
The
two institutions did not, however, say how many of the units will be
developed in Kenya. The housing units will be constructed according to
the IFC’s green building standards, delivering homes that are friendly
to the environment.
Mr Seydi said Kenya was
experiencing a shortage of two million units and Nigeria 17 million
adding that the problem was likely to persists into the future as
urbanisation continues to gather momentum.
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