Pan-African housing development financier, Shelter Afrique has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with two Chinese construction firms, Amberton International Holdings, and Sichuan Huashi Enterprise Corporations E.A. LTD, aimed at scaling up the development of large-scale affordable housing projects in Kenya and other Shelter Afrique member States.
The deal was signed in Nairobi by Shelter Afrique Chief Executive Officer Andrew Chimphondah, Amberton International Holdings Director Nancy Yu, and Sichuan Huashi Enterprise Corporations E.A. LTD Managing Director Cao Zheng.
Mr. Andrew Amberton, noted that the partnership will enable the company to expand their project across the continent. They will work with Amberton International Holdings as a co-developer for specific large-scale, low-cost housing projects in Africa, which will be constructor by Sichuan Huashi Enterprise Corporations E.A. LTD.
Housing crisis in Africa
Some of the off-take projects have been identified in Kenya and in other markets such as Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Nigeria where Shelter Afrique has existing project pipelines.
โChimphondah said the majority of African countries were already facing a housing crisis with the overall housing shortage estimated at 56 million housing units across the continent. Out of this, more than 90% are in the affordable housing bracket. Already we are in the process of securing a few projects in Kenya with the Department of Defense, the Kenya Police and the Civil Service, for which we expect to break ground this year. These take-off projects will be aligned with Kenya government affordable housing plan under the Big 4 Agenda, which seeks to develop 500,000 housing units by 2022,โ said Chimphondah.
