By VINCENT OWINO

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Pan-African housing financier Shelter Afrique has approved an $18.5 million corporate loan to a Democratic Republic of Congo-based developer for three housing projects.

The five-year facility is part of “urban regeneration,” the lender said Tuesday and is the third credit line for the company since 2016.

The Katanga-based Maison Super Development (MSD) is building office blocks in the southern city of Kolwezi and southeastern Lubumbashi, the third-biggest DRC city, where it is also putting up a housing project.

“Lubumbashi and Kolwezi are two cities gradually being transformed into major cities in the DRC,” said Shelter Afrique acting managing director Kingsley Muwowo, adding that the funding makes it easy to “create a mix where both affordable housing would exist with commercial spaces to spur business activities and employment.”

“We are grateful for the partnership, which will enable us to change the face of Lubumbashi and Kolwezi one housing unit at a time,” said Dharmendra Kumar, MSD’s managing director.

Shelter Afrique has been ramping up its activities in DRC through public-private partnerships and equity investments in large-scale, low-cost housing projects. It also injected $11.4 million into a lender for mortgage financing.

The financier has been seeking to invest in lower-cost projects across its 40 member states in the continent. Early this year, it launched a ‘housing affordability calculator’ to vet proposals pitched by developers.