Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The stake of Nigeria in pan-Africa housing development financier, Shelter Afrique, has increased to 15.8 per cent, though still behind the largest shareholder, Kenya, which controls 16.85 per cent.
The relationship between Nigeria and Shelter Afrique has been growing in recent years. In September 2020, the institution received a $9.4 million additional capital subscription from Nigeria and recently, the country paid an additional $7.15 million to increase its holding to the current level.
The other top three shareholders of Shelter Afrique whose shareholdings now change are the African Development Bank (AfDB), which now stands at 12.16 per cent down from 12.71 per cent; Mali at 5.3 per cent down from 5.54 per cent; and Ghana at 5.05 per cent down from 5.28 per cent.
The acting Managing Director & Chief Finance Officer of Shelter Afrique, Mr Kingsley Muwowo, lauded the Nigerian government for the show of confidence in the organisation.
“We are grateful to the government of Nigeria for their continued support and the importance they have placed on affordable housing. We are especially grateful to the Minister for Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola; the Minister for State for Works and Housing, Mr Abubakar Aliyu; and the Minister for Finance Mrs Zainab Ahmed, for their long-term support and for honouring this significant payment. Additionally, we appreciate Nigeria’s active shareholder and board participation,” Mr Muwowo said.
Other countries that have so far ramped up the capital subscription in the Pan-African housing development financier in 2022 are Swaziland and Burkina Faso which paid $317,854.54 and $34,610.00 respectively, for additional stakes.
“So far, we have received $7,504,295.45 in additional capital from member states within the last six months of 2022. We are grateful to our shareholders for this much-needed capital injection which will go a long way in strengthening the capital structure of the company to support the ongoing fund-raising efforts to raise additional debt capital required to support the project pipeline which now stands at $1 billion across 44 member countries,” Mr Muwowo said.
Shelter Afrique recently completed a debut N46 billion ($110.7 million) Series 1 Fixed Rate Senior Unsecured Bond Issuance in Nigeria’s capital market under its N200 billion ($481.3 million) bond issuance programme for housing and urban development in Nigeria and it plans similar bond issuance in East African markets including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.
