Hon Bishop Dr. Margaret Wanjiru, Assistant Minister of Housing; His Excellency Mr. Shigeo IWATANI, Ambassador of Japan to Kenya; Madam Domina Buzingo; Resident Representative of African Development in Kenya; Madam Josephine Ngure, Principal Investment Officer, Private Sector Department of African Development Bank; Distinguished Guests from International Development Finance Institutions, Commercial Banks;  Re-insurance Companies, Auditors and Advocates;   The Press; Colleagues; Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;

 

I would like to warmly welcome Hon Bishop Wanjiru and Your Excellency  Iwatani and members of your delegations to Shelter Afrique Headquarters. I also welcome our colleagues from the African Development Bank and other institutions; your presence is a great testimony of your support to Shelter Afrique at different capacities. Our institution puts high weight on business partnerships, which is one of the cornerstones of our strategic plan. Our recognition goes to the Board, the management and the staff of African Development Bank led by Josephine Ngure physically present at this ceremony. I acknowledge her commitment to make it possible. Please pass our profound appreciation  to your colleagues and management for the good job your team performed.    

 

I salute the creative vision developed by Dr Donald Kaberuka, President of African Development Bank to channel more resources through Regional and sub regional development finance institutions. He is a believer in comparative advantage and  division of labor between African institutions to make  development finance more effective. 

 

On behalf of the member countries and the Board of Directors of Shelter Afrique as well as my colleagues, I would like to record our sincere appreciation to African Development Bank for this well structured and well thought out financial package comprising equity participation, a line of credit and a technical assistance. With the support of FMO, AFD and ADB, we are turning the corner in our strategic partnership programme for a renewed housing financing based on the wholesale approach through financial intermediaries and direct lending for real estate development. This will help Shelter Afrique gain more productivity to deliver sound performance indicators.

 

The additional equity participation, so scarce at this time, for an amount of $7.5 million will make ADB at this time the largest shareholder leading other countries like Kenya, Nigeria and Algeria. With the additional equity, ADB’s participation will amount to $12.6 million. For us, this is a vote of confidence in the future of this institution whose objective is to be the truly Pan African financial institution for housing finance.

The long term unsecured line of credit of up to $30 million is really a big push for our operational programmes over the period 2009-2011 where we want to deliver more housing projects for the middle class in various countries. The lending programme over the period 2009-2011 will grow at 30% per annum. This financing will be really a catalyst for additional financial resources from the capital markets and African commercial banks as well as some International Development Finance Institutions. I am happy to recall that African financial Capital Markets Authorities both in Kenya and in West Africa Economic and Monetary Economic Union (WAEMEU) have approved our bonds issuance programme for 2009. The placements are under way and the operations will be completed by the end of August. The indication on the pricing with a attractive premium over the  yield on Government bond is very satisfactory. This is in line with our objective to raise more money at competitive pricing in order to play our major role: be an efficient pass through vehicle by seeking the best conditions possible in the markets and transfer them to borrowers with a margin that will remunerate the different risks that we assume.

 

Last but not the least, there is the technical assistance agreement totaling nearly $ 1 million funded by the Fund for African Private Sector whose generous contributor is the Government of Japan. We seize this opportunity to express our gratitude to the Government of Japan for this grant to develop Shelter Afrique’s technical and institutional capacity. The main components to be financed through the technical assistance are products diversification and development, small developers capacity building, policy dialogue on housing and human development. This comprehensive approach to help develop the capacity of Shelter Afrique is one of the best investments which will yield tremendous benefits to developers and housing finance institutions in Africa.
Ladies and Gentlemen,

To conclude, the signing is just a step in the process of getting the money for project financing. It’s not the hardest part. Therefore, we would focus on implementation by speeding up all processes for quick disbursements to projects and shifting our performance indicators from disbursements to number of houses, apartments and other housing for African population.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.