H.E PRESIDENT MWAI KIBAKI’S SPEECH DURING THE 30th AGM OF SHELTER AFRIQUE BANK AT KICC, NAIROBI-14TH JUNE 2011. MORTGAGE FINANCE FOR INCREASED ACCESS TO HOUSING IN AFRICA.

H.E PRESIDENT MWAI KIBAKI’S SPEECH DURING THE 30th AGM OF SHELTER AFRIQUE BANK AT KICC, NAIROBI-14TH JUNE 2011.
MORTGAGE FINANCE FOR INCREASED ACCESS TO HOUSING IN AFRICA.

Present:
H.E PRESIDENT MWAI KIBAKI
VICE PRESIDENT KALONZO MUSYOKA E.G.H, M.P
MINISTER FOR HOUSING-Hon. Soita Shitanda, E.G.H,M.P.
MINISTER FOR LANDS AND HOUSING-UGANDA-Hon. Daudi Migereko.
CHAIRMAN OF SHELTER AFRIQUE BANK.
MINISTERS FOR HOUSING FOR 43 MEMBER STATES OF SHELTER AFRIQUE BANK.
ARCHITECTS .

Hon. KALONZO MUSYOKA’S SPEECH.

Vice President Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka began his speech by jogging peoples’ memories on the fact that in the year 1987, he was honored to lead the Kenyan delegation to the 6th AGM in Kigali, Rwanda. During the AGM, he says that Kenya did not hesitate to host the Headquarters in Nairobi.

Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka said that he was also honored to lead the Kenyan delegation to Vienna in 1996 where after Kenya made a decision to include shelter an issue of Human Rights.

He said that the new Kenyan constitution now makes shelter a basic human right.
He then invited H.E President Mwai Kibaki to give his speech.

H.E PRESIDENT MWAI KIBAKI’S SPEECH.

H.E President Kibaki welcomed all to the meeting on behalf of the people of Kenya.
He noted that the theme of the meeting was Mortgage finance for increased access to housing in Africa.
He said that the theme was timely to address the housing shortfall in Africa due to rapid urban growth. He said that Africa is currently experiencing 5% annual urban growth rate which is the fastest in the world. This has resulted in environmental degradation and the onset of slums.

He said that Africa must invest in more resources in Housing. He stressed that innovative housing finance strategies are critical. The cost of Housing should reduce.
He noted that mortgage financing is expensive, risky and only for the rich and Africans must make property financing affordable to low income people.

He hoped that the meeting will come up with a concrete proposal to unlock mortgage to enable people to access housing.
He noted that since 1982, Shelter Afrique has played a crucial role in facilitating development of housing mostly in the middle income households e.g. in Kenya, Shelter Afrique has funded over 86 projects at a cost of 111 million USD which has resulted to an increase in Kenya’s economy.

He said that use of locally available construction materials should be used with modern technology to make construction affordable.
He said that the Banking Act has been amended to accommodate extension of credit to the real estate sector. E.g. mortgage companies are now allowed to operate current accounts to mobilize deposits and Banks can advance up to 40% of their total deposits up from 25% for investments in real estate.

Conclusion.

H.E President Kibaki said that cost of borrowing money to build a home was too high, hampering Kenya’s development. He challenged Shelter Afrique to find ways of reducing this and requested all present to focus on this dimension.

Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau. B.Arch. Nrb. M.A.A.K[A]
www.a4architect.com
+254721410684.