(Ecofin Agency) - World Bank will provide $250 million to improve access to affordable housing in Kenya. This was announced by the Bretton Woods institution in a release published on May 1, 2019.

The new funding will be administrated by Kenya Mortgage Refinance Corporation (KMRC).

KMRC, 80% owned by the private sector, will provide long-term financing to banks. These banks will then grant cheap housing loans to Kenyans.  

Via this funding, the World Bank wants to implement its Kenya Affordable Housing Finance Project aimed at tripling the proportion of households that have access to housing loans in urban areas.  

This operation comes as a support to the government’s Big Four Agenda whose goal is to provide Kenyans access to close to 500,000 houses within five years to bridge the growing housing deficit. This deficit is estimated at 200,000 units yearly but, it may rise to 300,000 unit per year by 2020.

“Urban housing currently remains unaffordable for most Kenyans due to cost of financing, the short loan tenures and the high cost of properties,” said Felipe Jaramillo, World Bank Kenya Country Director.

In October 2018, the government announced the mobilization of about $545 million during the ongoing fiscal year for its social housing project.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou