Shelter Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB), a financer of housing, urban, and related infrastructure development, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CPF Group, a financial service, to speed up implementation of large-scale affordable housing projects in Kenya.
According to ShafDB, the partnership is part of a long-term goal of supporting member states through public-private partnerships.
“We are excited to partner with Shelter Afrique Development and leverage on each institution’s strength as we jointly address the perennial problem of decent and affordable housing in Kenya,” CPF Group Managing Director Hosea Kili said after signing the deal with ShafDB Head of Credit and Operations Christopher Chege.
“This partnership opens up opportunities for collaboration in many areas including product and services design and finding innovative funding solutions for our current and future projects.”
The agreement seeks to establish a Housing Solutions Fund for Kenya, which will make interventions on the supply and demand side of the affordable housing value chain.
Both ShafDB and CPF Group will jointly design and manage the fund, including offering capital and technical support to the management of the fund.
“It is against this background that Shelter Afrique Development Bank and the CPF Group are joining forces through the Collaboration Agreement to scale up affordable housing delivery. We believe our partnership with CPF Group will deepen our impact on Kenya’s and by extension, Africa’s affordable housing value chain, from both the supply and demand side,” stated Chege.
Data from the World Bank shows that the country has a total housing deficit of 2 million housing units, but this number could rise due to high rates of population growth and high urbanisation rates.
In efforts to ease housing challenges, the government put in place measures through the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) to deliver 250,000 housing units per year against the current 50,000 annual deliveries.
