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Ethiopia’s flagship social housing programme is considered the largest social housing project in Africa and one of the most ambitious in the developing world. Since 2006, the Ethiopian government through Integrated Housing Development Programme has been building affordable homes financed by public money and boosted by the fact that all land in Ethiopia is State-owned. About 250,00 houses have been realised in the last decade. Those who can afford make down payment and then proceed to the schemes mortgage repayment terms provided by State-owned bank. The poorest are however encouraged to register for the lottery system which allocates units as they became available

The challenges of the Ethiopian affordable housing programme are what we must learn from. The lottery system doesn’t allocate according to need and take too long, up to a decade wait, consequently those in dire need of housing don’t get priority. Poorest people cannot afford the programme because of the struggle to pay deposit and those who do are unable to service their mortgage repayment. Many have been forced to rent out their units and seek cheaper accommodation elsewhere. In fact, in the face of fiscal reality, the government in 2013 changed its focus and introduced a scheme aimed at the middle class who can pay up to 40 per cent deposit.

Looking at another country, Angola, in the run up to 2008 elections, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos made an election promise to build one million social housing in four years. And up came the Nova Cidade de Kilamba (New City of Kilamba) ‘social housing’ project. Built at reported cost of $3.5billion by the Chinese company CITIC, it was supposed to reduce the Angolan housing shortage by housing about 500,000 people. However, Angolan trophy city is a “ghost’ town. The housing units cost between $120,000 to $200,000, way beyond the reach of common citizen. While the ordinary Angolans celebrated the noble idea of social housing, they have witnessed exorbitant speculation of prices that has ensured exclusion of the very people this project was supposedly aimed. In Cameroon, the World Bank reports that the government’s social housing scheme is out of reach to 80 per cent of the population.

The first debate on affordable housing in Africa must begin on how to reduce the cost of construction; whether State or privately built. Cost of cement in Africa is about three times the cost in the rest of world. This is not a conjecture,if our current cost of construction is not reduced, we cannot achieve affordable housing for the poor even if the State is the building them.

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