Africa is currently the fastest urbanizing continent in the world, with an annual urban growth rate of 4.5% - 5.0%. Nearly 40 per cent of Africans now live in cities, expected to increase to 50 per cent in the next 25 years, if current trends continue.  Cities in Africa contribute about 60 percent of the continent?s GDP. The rapid growth in urban population is not commensurately matched by increase in the provision of infrastructure services, housing or shelter in these cities. The result is acute shortage of decent and affordable housing and poor living environment. It has been variously estimated that the total urban population and the urbanized areas in Sub-Saharan Africa can be expected to increase threefold and the flows of persons and urban goods and services to increase tenfold by 2025. Consequently, ?it is essential to develop a new vision of the African city as a place of innovation, wealth creation and capital accumulation, but no longer as a place of poverty and concentration of all kinds of depravity? .

Despite the urgency of the urban problem and the recognized importance of the cities in economic development, Africa cities and towns are yet to be managed efficiently with a view to meeting the needs of residents and those that interact with the urban areas. Urban management encompasses planning, infrastructure services, housing, legal and institutional frameworks, governance, financial planning and management, amongst other aspects needed to ensure sustainable development. Those responsible for managing the urban areas, who comprise mainly local, municipal and central government agencies and institutions, have however been unable to properly identify, anticipate and address the problems of these areas in innovative ways. More often than not, the legal and institutional frameworks as well as the governance structures in place are either inadequate or outdated for managing both existing and new settlement areas. Many have identified the issue of capacity in all its forms: governance, institutional, technical,

 financial, management amongst others, as the greatest impediment to urban development.

The consequences are obvious in most town and cities in Africa:-

i) over 60 percent of the population lives in poor infrastructure and housing conditions;

ii) continuing breakdown and deterioration of urban services where they exist due to poor maintenance;

iii) low level of new investments in the maintenance and extension of urban services to new areas;

iv) overcrowding and further deterioration of the quality of old settlements areas and services due to over densification occasioned by lack new settlement areas;

v) lack of forward planning in cities leading to congestion, slums and inadequate services.

 

Throughout Africa, there is urgent need for urban renewal, to improve the delivery of serviced plots and to develop capacity in urban management. There are a number of institutions, both bilateral and multilateral, committing both financial resources and technical expertise to assists governments and their institutions at various levels to improve their capacities to manage the cities and towns. There is also a heightened level of urgency on the part of governments to address urban problems through public, private and people partnerships. Some of these partnerships have been limited to macro-infrastructure such as transportation, power generation, water and sewerage systems. Infrastructure services provision at micro-levels such as plot servicing is yet to receive the desired attention.

 

Past Experience
Shelter Afrique recognizes that the availability of serviced plots at affordable prices will not only improve housing delivery but also urban management and development in member countries.  It will therefore fund viable projects that provide serviced plots through the provision of infrastructure services and renew existing settlements through upgrading of existing services. Shelter Afrique will work closely with both private and public institutions, especially the municipal authorities to develop sustainable strategies for delivering serviced plots.
Shelter Afrique has been providing medium term loans (up to 5 years) to private developers and parastatals in member countries for site and services schemes that were designed to plan, sub-divide and service urban land with essential infrastructure for outright sale to members of the public or developers. Such loans were extended to Soloprimo (Guinea), Satu (Niger), IFA-Baco, Sema and SIFMA (Mali), GM Properties (Malawi) and Maetur (Cameroon). Shelter Afrique has also funded housing projects that entailed provision of both offside and on-site infrastructure services as well as the construction of houses. Total balance of this product in our portfolio is US$14.85 million.