Nairobi, Kenya, 7 October 2026 – Shelter Afrique Development Bank
(ShafDB) today launched its first sustainable bond issuance, worth FCFA
60 billion (approximately USD 100 million). The issuance will mobilize
local-currency resources to finance affordable and sustainable housing
projects in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) region.
The transaction is arranged by CGF Bourse Dakar as Lead Arranger, with
the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Ecobank Group, through
Ecobank Senegal, as anchor investors.
The issuance is structured in two tranches: a five-year tranche at 6.10%
and a seven-year tranche at 6.30%. The subscription period runs from 7
to 30 October 2026.
“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 Shelter Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB). “Deepening our presence
in West African capital markets, allows us to connect local savings with
urgent development needs within the region and to deploy financing in
the same currency that local developers earn their income.”
A new stage in ShafDB’s transformation
This transaction is part of the strategic transformation of Shelter
Afrique Development Bank into a pan-African multilateral development
bank, with the ambition of scaling up and significantly increasing its
impact across its 44 shareholder countries.
The transformation is accompanied by a strategy to diversify the
institution’s funding sources, increase its access to African capital
markets, mobilize new resources from international partners, and
strengthen its capital base, in order to better meet the scale of the
continent’s financing needs.
Financing housing in local currency
The housing market in the WAEMU region faces a significant structural
deficit. According to estimates cited by the World Bank Group, the
deficit is around 3.5 million housing units, with nearly 250,000
additional units needed each year to keep pace with population growth
and urbanization.
ShafDB’s issuance therefore aims to channel financial resources toward
affordable, sustainable and energy-efficient housing projects, while
better matching the currency of the financing with that of the revenues
the projects generate.
For ShafDB, the use of local currency is an essential lever for
financing the real estate sector. By aligning the financing currency
with project revenues, this approach helps reduce borrowers’ exposure to
currency risk, which is particularly important for medium- and long-term
real estate investments.
A sustainable financing framework developed with GGGI
In preparing this issuance, ShafDB partnered with the Global Green
Growth Institute (GGGI) to develop and publish its Sustainable Financing
Framework.
The framework received a favorable opinion from S&P Global,
strengthening the credibility and transparency of ShafDB’s approach to
sustainable finance and its alignment with the principles applicable to
green and social financial instruments.
The transaction has also passed a major regulatory milestone with the
approval (visa) of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers de l’UMOA
(AMF-UMOA).
Mobilizing African savings for development
This issuance also forms part of the momentum behind the New African
Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), as enshrined in the
Abidjan Consensus, which aims to strengthen the mobilization of African
savings and further develop the continent’s capital markets, as a
complement to international resources.
The goal is to encourage greater mobilization of domestic and regional
resources to finance Africa’s development priorities, particularly in
housing, urban infrastructure and sustainable development.
With long-standing experience in African capital markets, Shelter
Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB) has to date completed 11 bond
issuances across various markets on the continent, demonstrating its
ability to mobilize local-currency resources from African investors. The
most recent took place in April 2022 on the Nigerian market, where the
institution raised NGN 46 billion, approximately USD 110 million.
A new chapter for ShafDB
Through this sustainable bond issuance, Shelter Afrique Development Bank
reaffirms its commitment to playing a greater role in mobilizing African
capital and in financing the housing and urban development solutions the
continent needs.
