CBZ gets US$15m boost

Nelson Gahadza, Harare Bureau

SHELTER Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB), a pan-African housing financier, has extended US$15 million to CBZ Bank to finance the construction of houses and mortgage origination.

The pan-African institution is solely dedicated to financing and promoting housing, urban and related infrastructure development across the African continent.

ShafDB operates through a partnership involving 44 African governments, including Zimbabwe as well as the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Africa Reinsurance Corporation (Africa-Re).

Speaking at the signing ceremony yesterday, Shelter Afrique chief business officer for investment and advisory services, Mr Gibson Mapfidza, said the facility did not mark a new relationship with CBZ, but the result of relations dating back to 2012 when the institution advanced US$12 million followed by a further US$8 million in 2014.

“We have confidence in the relationship and that is why we are continuing to build on that relationship. What we have seen in other countries is that you advance a facility but the houses you don’t see them; that is why we are here because CBZ has a track record in terms of financing affordable housing,” he said.

Mr Mapfidza said Shelter Afrique was going through a transformation phase and had classified its products into four verticals.

The first one is called the financial institution group (fig), which focuses on the demand side of housing, where companies advance a line of credit to banks so that they can issue mortgages.

“So, mainly it’s around mortgage financing, microfinancing, and in other certain countries we work with Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS) to advance mortgages.

“Fig is after realising that the traditional view around housing is to say if we focus on the supply side being developers, contractors, they deliver houses that will be absorbed in the market. “We are realising that in Africa, for us to resolve the 52 million housing deficit across Africa and the 1,5 million in Zimbabwe, we need to intervene on the demand and supply sides,” said Mr Mapfidza.

He said the second pillar is the Project Financing Group (PFG), which focuses on direct financing to developers, contractors and also trade financing.

“We are engaging across SADC to finance the import component as most countries within SADC import finished goods mainly from South Africa. So, our focus is to finance that as trade finance,” he said.

The third vertical pillar is the PPPs, or sovereign funding. He said since the institution was owned by 44 member countries, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Africa-Re, the member states expect Shelter Afrique as a company they own to also intervene directly with them.

“So, we do PPPs in terms of structuring, mobilising financing, and also put catalytic funding for the project to take off,” he said.

The last vertical, fund management, focuses on offshore investors who want to invest in housing in Africa due to the deficit.

“In Africa we have a huge diaspora market; we also do road shows to capture that market and work with local banks to implement housing projects,” said Mr Mapfidza.