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By VICTOR RABALLA
"After the authors of this article, financiers offer great opportunities to design products to help low-income families build or improve their shelters.
This can be done through the provision of small loans that help them build homes in a piecemeal fashion. Such funding for incremental improvements can, for example, allow families to borrow loans to build foundations and once that is paid, they could go as far to complete the walls as & ### They complete their construction. indicating that the urban population is expected to double over the next 25 years, housing experts have sounded alarm in the face of an impending crisis in sub-Saharan Africa
reports show that less than 5% of Africans have access to Designing appropriate financial products for progressive residential construction and improvement, the MasterCard Foundation's program director, Ruth Dueck Mbeba, said that this could help financiers. become commercially viable and sustainable.
"When products are well developed and the portfolio is well managed, it can be a profitable segment for a bank or microfinance." She said at a housing conference held in Uganda last week
.According to reports that 1.6 billion people in the world live in substandard housing, Ms. Mbaba pointed out that the demand for decent shelter and affordable housing
Most banks reject or are generally unaware of the financing of low-income households because of the perceived risk and high cost of product development.
Contributing to the satisfaction of the basic human need and the right of low-income families Habitat for Humanity a partnered with Mastercard Foundation to work with market systems and advise financial service providers on mic product design Residential Rofinance.
Kenya: Kenya Women's Finance Trust (KWFT) and Stima Sacco are the financial institutions adopted the program while Centenary Bank, Opportunity Bank and Pride Microfinance Limited are Uganda's leading commercial service providers neighbour. [19659004] KWFT Chief Executive Officer, Mwangi Githaiga, said the institution had spent 3.5 billion shillings for building homes in rural Kenya in 45 counties out of 47 to try to give people the opportunity to improve their lives. "We have a portfolio of 20 billion shillings for housing projects because we aim to improve the rural economy and control rural-urban migration," he said. Financial institutions and developers have channeled their resources. He said that they provide loans between Sh5,000 to Sh1 million.
