The Executive Committee of the African Union for Housing Finance on Tuesday concluded a two-day consultative meeting on housing finance at the Kairaba Beach Hotel.

The African Union for Housing Finance (AUHF) is the oldest continental housing body in Africa, with a membership of 27 mortgage banks, building societies, housing corporations and other housing finance organisations in 15 African countries.

Speaking to journalists shortly after the meeting, Mr. Samson Moraba, Chairman of the AUHF from South Africa, said the aim of the body is to build institutional capacity in housing finance challenges and engage governments in positioning the AUHF as a key point of reference in housing finance matters on the continent.

He said: “We secure sustainable resources to meet the objectives and implement the plan and to develop partnerships with other appropriate housing institutions on the continent”.

According to him, AUHF is recognised and respected as a viable and credible continental networking body on housing finance matters. He noted that the organisation has at various times been involved in collaborating with others in training and other activities. “We collaborate with the Wharton Real Estate Centre at the University of Pennsylvania to bring their housing finance course to Africa.
We are also collaborating with Cities Alliance in developing data base to facilitate the upgrading of informal settlements in African countries. We are now at a phase in our development, where we should be making a substantial shift towards sustaining ongoing initiatives in the areas of training, capacity building and data management and analysis,” he stated.

Mike Mayo, Second Vice Chairman of AUHF from Zimbabwe, said the regulatory environments in many African countries are not appropriate for mortgage finance. He added that individual housing finance institutions, as well as associations represented are eligible for membership of the AUHF. “In Zimbabwe, we started with one membership from the association, but the individual members of the association decided to take separate memberships in order to have their own vote and to strengthen the financial position of the AUHF,” he concluded.