Shelter Afrique launches $100M housing bond for West Africa
What's the deal? Shelter Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has launched a $100 million bond to finance affordable housing across the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) region. The issuance comprises a five-year tranche at 6.10% and a seven-year tranche at 6.30%.
Why now? The WAEMU housing market faces a structural shortage. The World Bank GroupDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → estimates the regional deficit at around 3.5 million units, with roughly 250,000 additional units needed each year to keep pace with population growth and urbanisation.
What's the endgame? ShafDB will direct proceeds towards affordable, sustainable, and energy-efficient housing projects. Financing in local currency is intended to match project revenues with funding, reducing borrowers' exposure to foreign-exchange risk.
"Our ambition is not simply to raise capital, but to build a more diversified and resilient financing platform for housing and urban development across Africa," said Nabil Mahfoudh, director of treasury at ShafDB. The bank says the issuance will diversify its funding sources and expand its access to African capital markets.
Who approved it? The Autorité des Marchés Financiers de l'UMOADealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → cleared the transaction for the regional capital market. ShafDB developed its Sustainable Financing Framework with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and the framework received a favourable opinion from S&P Global.
The bond forms part of the New African Financial Architecture for Development, set out in the Abidjan Consensus, which aims to mobilise African savings and strengthen the continent's capital markets. ShafDB has now completed 11 bond issuances across African markets; its most recent, in Nigeria in April 2022, raised NGN 46 billion, then worth about $110 million.
The signal: The issuance tracks ShafDB's transformation into a pan-African multilateral development bank serving 44 shareholder countries, with a strategy centred on local-currency finance. By connecting regional savings to housing demand in the same currency developers earn, the bank is testing whether domestic capital markets can carry Africa's long-term development needs.
Read more: africabusinesscommunities.com
Image credit: airpanther
