Shelter Afrique Development Bank has launched a FCFA60bn sustainable bond to finance affordable and sustainable housing projects across the West African Economic and Monetary Union region.
The five-year and seven-year bond, equivalent to about $100m, is the development bank’s first sustainable bond issuance and is aimed at mobilising local-currency funding for the housing sector.
The five-year tranche carries an interest rate of 6.10 per cent, while the seven-year tranche is priced at 6.30 per cent. The subscription period runs from October 7 to 30, 2026.
CGF Bourse Dakar is the lead arranger, while the International Finance Corporation and Ecobank Group, through Ecobank Senegal, are the anchor investors.
The transaction comes as the WAEMU region faces an estimated housing deficit of about 3.5 million units, with an additional 250,000 homes required annually to keep pace with population growth and urbanisation.
Shelter Afrique said the bond would channel funds into affordable, sustainable and energy-efficient housing projects while matching the currency of financing with the revenues generated by local developers.
Nabil Mahfoudh, Director of Treasury at Shelter Afrique Development Bank, said the strategy was designed to deepen access to African capital markets and make housing finance more resilient.
“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,” Mahfoudh said.
He added that financing projects in local currency would help reduce developers’ exposure to foreign-exchange risks, particularly on medium- and long-term real estate investments.
The bank said it developed its Sustainable Financing Framework in partnership with the Global Green Growth Institute, while S&P Global issued a favourable opinion on the framework.
The transaction has also received regulatory approval from the Autorité des Marchés Financiers de l’UMOA.
The bond forms part of Shelter Afrique’s broader transformation into a pan-African multilateral development bank and its strategy to diversify funding sources, strengthen its capital base and increase access to African capital markets.
The institution said the transaction also supports efforts under the New African Financial Architecture for Development to mobilise domestic and regional savings for development projects.
Shelter Afrique has completed 11 bond issuances across African markets. Its most recent transaction was in Nigeria in April 2022, when it raised N46bn, equivalent to about $110m at the time.
The bank said the latest issuance would further strengthen its role in mobilising African savings for housing, urban infrastructure and sustainable development.
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