Rwanda invited to International Housing conference

Rwanda will be among the 60 delegations from Sub- Saharan Africa, Europe, Australia, Sweden and America expected in Kampala this week to discuss housing sector financing at the International Housing Conference. The topic for the-two day conference that begins on October 16 will be: “Public-private partnership for housing infrastructure, risk management and incentives for housing.” According to the players in the housing sector, financing stands out as the major obstacle deterring individual ownership of houses. “Shortage of housing is not unique to Uganda because we also have wealthy nations in Africa like South Africa that are also facing the same problem. We want to use this opportunity as key players in the housing sector to highlight challenges and put our heads together to find solutions,” Joseph Kitamirike, the Chief Executive Officer of the Uganda National Housing and Construction Company told The New Times in an interview about the conference on Tuesday. “All discussions will be directed at addressing challenges and finding solutions to housing financing,” he underscored. He also noted that the rampant shortage of housing in Africa is as a result of high population growth rates in the region. “Housing and population are closely related. High population growth calls for increased housing. Controlling population growth is not our duty but to provide shelter. We must start acting now to deal with the shortage before it is too late,” he said. He added that the conference will be a forum for networking for housing developers with financial institutions and technology developers that provide new housing designs. East African Development Bank, Shelter Afric, Stanbic Bank are among the financial institutions that will participate in the event. The Social Security Fund of Rwanda and Housing Bank of Rwanda are among the institutions expected to represent Rwanda. Key speakers at the conference will include Debbie Erb (Overseas private investment corporation in U.S.A), Richard Tait (Standard Bank, Mauritius) and Ahmed Moses (Al Halaal Bank). Ends