ShafDB takes $100m sustainable housing bond to West African investors
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Shelter Afrique Development Bank has launched its first sustainable bond, a FCFA60 billion (about $100 million) issuance aimed at financing affordable, energy-efficient housing across West Africa's WAEMU region.
Shelter Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB) is turning to West African investors to help finance affordable housing, launching its first sustainable bond issuance worth FCFA60 billion, or approximately $100 million.
The pan-African housing finance institution is seeking to mobilise domestic and regional savings for affordable, sustainable and energy-efficient housing projects across the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). The transaction opened for subscription on 7 October and runs until 30 October 2026.
The bond is structured in two tranches: a five-year tranche carrying an annual interest rate of 6.10% and a seven-year tranche at 6.30%. CGF Bourse Dakar is lead arranger, with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Ecobank Group, through Ecobank Senegal, acting as anchor investors.
"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," said Nabil Mahfoudh, director of treasury at ShafDB. He said deepening the bank's presence in West African capital markets allows it to connect local savings with urgent regional development needs and to deploy financing in the same currency that local developers earn their income.
Estimates cited by the World Bank Group put the WAEMU region's housing deficit at approximately 3.5 million units, with about 250,000 additional homes required each year. ShafDB's decision to raise FCFA-denominated resources is intended to align the currency of financing with the revenues generated by projects in the regional market, reducing the currency mismatch that can make debt servicing costlier for developers.
The issuance also supports ShafDB's wider funding strategy of diversifying its sources of capital and reducing dependence on a narrower range of financing channels.