“…Shelter Afrique tries to determine Africa’s housing hardships by creating public-private organizations to transform ghettos into affordable abodes, supporting projects to revamp homes crushed by conflict, and advocating for affordable housing drives.”
The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Shelter Afrique, Mr Andrew Chimphondah has brought the company back on the track of productivity.
As Pan-African development financier, Shelter Afrique hits 40 years of operation, as it continues to exhibit strength and perseverance by consistently spreading its impression across the African landmass against all barriers.
As of late, the company was named Africa’s Best Real Estate Finance Company, 2021 by London-based Capital Finance International.
The honour was in acknowledgment of the organization’s commitment to financing affordable housing developments across the African continent.
The journey has not always been rosy. It was just three years prior, under the initiative of the current Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Andrew Chimphondah, that Shelter Afrique was impelled back on the path of benefit. Before he came on board, The company had recorded ceaseless misfortunes for over four years.
Andrew Chimphondah joined Shelter Afrique in 2018 at a crucial time for the company, which was going through some unrest at that point. The company’s executives were trying so hard to keep the company working.
“I was fully aware of the situation when I joined. At the time, you could draw parallels between the company’s challenges and the industry’s struggles. However, Shelter Afrique has a 40-year history of redefining itself to adapt to any climate in which it finds itself. With the unambiguous backing of the board and the excellent management team, we were able to return the institution to profitability and set it back on the path of doing what it does best, which is furthering and facilitating affordable housing across Africa”, Chimphondah revealed.
Before he was appointed head of Shelter Afrique, Chimphondah was the CEO of Housing Investment Partners, a fund management firm in South Africa that majors on raising fund for affordable housing. With him in charge, the company raised essentially R1 billion annually in financing while flaunting R1 billion in resources under administration, extending at a pace of R1 billion annually.
Chimphondah: Nigeria Real Estate at a Glance
The United Nations, in a recent report noted that Nigeria could face housing deficiencies of 22 million homes by 2030 on the off chance that its administration doesn’t go to vital lengths. Chimphondah is of the belief that Shelter Afrique is in an excellent situation to handle the emergency in Nigeria head-on, pronouncing that each African merits an affordable home.
“Nigeria has Africa’s greatest population by far, and Nigeria’s population is expected to reach over 400 million people by the year 2050, according to the United Nations. This is the situation of things. Right now, we believe the housing deficit in Nigeria is 17 million homes. This is a massive number, and it’s part of the reason why we have chosen to pay special attention to Nigeria.”
Nigeria’s homeownership rate stays at 25 percent, the most reduced among other African countries. For example, Kenya has a pace of 75% while South Africa has a pace of 56%. This housing shortage is especially noticeable in significant Nigerian urban areas like Kano, Lagos, and Ibadan, where housing demand is spiraling at 20 percent annually.
Chimphondah has communicated his confidence in both the capital market and public-private associations as viable roadmaps to tackling Nigeria’s housing challenges. The effect of government strategy is additionally not lost on the man in charge of Shelter Afrique.
He said: “We have found that the capital markets are an underutilised source of money. This is why as part of our process; we also use our contacts and networks to crowd-fund affordable housing projects. Some of the multilateral entities we collaborate with include the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the World Bank.
“We actively explore public-private partnerships because working with government bodies, we can streamline the entire process of erecting housing structures. Governments can subsidise infrastructure and provide financial incentives such as tax cuts. They can also enact policies that make the environment more conducive for developers to work freely.”
The affordable housing pioneer has teamed up with an amazing number of organizations and nations across the African continent and beyond. In its 40-year of operation, Shelter Afrique has gained a positive connotation across different African business sectors including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Mauritius, Madagascar, Somalia, and Burundi.
In July 2021, Shelter Afrique inked its most broad partnership with a coordinated body. The Pan-African housing financier and Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 29 July 2021. The collaboration with REDAN will bring about the development of 12,000 affordable housing units across the six geographical zones of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Speaking on this coordinated effort, Chimphondah stated, “We’re excited about our partnership with REDAN, especially because it allows us to have an impact on a group, we believe are best positioned to drive these projects, the developers. With this endeavour, we are helping developers across Nigeria build capacity.
“It also follows our annual general meeting in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where we became the first organisation to bring together 44 housing ministers and 44 finance ministers to discuss how to address Africa’s 56 million housing shortfall. We came up with the historic Yaoundé Declaration, in which African governments, housing and finance ministers, and policymakers all vowed to improve sustainable housing delivery in Africa.”
Residential real estate demands in major Nigerian cities may likely rise due to shifting work formats brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic, as remote work becomes a key driver of space demand. The increment in warehousing demand and a web-based business and online exchange extension are pushing for rapid development in the modern sub-area.
Recounting Shelter Afrique’s Milestones
The company’s all out revenue rose to USD 1.85 million in 2020, up from a fatal loss of US$1.26 million in 2019, denoting a 247 % year-on-year rise. Notwithstanding despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s appearance in the primary quarter of 2020.
Notwithstanding the daunting economic realities in 2020, the company was effective in finishing up its hotly anticipated Debt Restructuring Agreement (DRA) with six Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and two business banks, namely African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, Agence Française de Développement, The KfW, West African Development Bank (BOAD), Islamic Development Bank, NCBA Bank Kenya, and Ghana International BV.
Shelter Afrique tries to determine Africa’s housing hardships by creating public-private organizations to transform ghettos into adequate abodes, supporting projects to revamp homes crushed by conflict, and advocating for affordable housing drives. It has saved up a total of $1billion in its 2019-2023 plan to help new housing development, planning to bring $20million up in yearly value capital from new and existing members.
Source: Africanhousingnews
