COURSE OVERVIEW AND PARTICIPANTS

Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are expanding at a rapid rate, accelerating the demand for affordable housing.  However, the low levels and unpredictable nature of household incomes, means that conventional housing finance products are often inappropriate.  Alternative products are rare, and are often expensive and difficult to deliver at scale.  Over and above this, the recent global financial crisis warns us against the dangers of poor lending practices and unsustainable business and funding models.  As a result, there is a need for innovative housing finance products to be developed that take the local social, economic and institutional contexts into account but that are at the same time sound from a business funding, operational and risk-management point of view.

In response to this, the Housing Finance Course for Sub-Saharan Africa offers a comprehensive overview of the key issues and concepts in housing finance with respect to the different contexts, the design of the different housing finance products available and the business models needed to provide such products in an effective, viable and responsible manner.

In doing so, the course aims to enhance the professional ability of the participants and improve the effectiveness of their sponsoring organisations.  Participants may be from private housing finance institutions, government housing and finance agencies, and academic and international development institutions from both emerging market and established economies.