Stake holders in the housing sector from 44 nations across Africa are currently meeting in Yaounde to collectively seek pragmatic solutions to the housing crisis on the continent, especially during the crippling COVID-19 pandemic era.
The come together is within the framework of the 40th Annual General Meeting of the Company for Habitat and Housing in Africa dubbed Shelter Afrique under the theme “Four decades of affordable housing policies in Africa: Mapping the Next Forty Years.”
As such for the next seven days, delegates at the meeting will draw up strategies of improving access to funding, loans and land titling as ways to promote decent and affordable housing in a bit to reduce informal settlements on the continent.
Shelter Afrique is a pan-African real estate finance institution that exclusively supports the development of the housing and real estate sector in Africa.
As part of the 44 member countries, Cameroon subscribed to the initiative in 1982 with an initial capital of 3.2 billion.
With a benefit of about 24 billion gotten through different housing schemes, the country has undertaken the development of social housing and seen the construction of some 2600 units nationwide.
Apart from the Annual General Meeting, Shelter Afrique will be marking its 40th anniversary.
“Our 40th year will be one of retrospection. We believe as we navigate this new decade and the realities that this pandemic has thrown into sharp relief, there is a need to review Africa’s housing policy environment. Not merely to measure growth, successes and challenges but, more importantly, to forecast the next forty years to shape policy for our member-states and the way we approach low-cost large-scale delivery of housing in Africa,” Shelter Afrique’s Chief Executive, Andrew Pandeka Chimphondah said during the virtual General Assembly last May 26.
Cameroon’s Prime Minister Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute represented the Head of State as Chair of the opening ceremony this Monday June 21.
Source: Journal Du Cameroun
