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Expert decries lack of sustainable housing microfinance
2008-05-15 09:38:26
By Lusekelo Philemon
The majority of poor Tanzanians will continue to live in dilapidated houses and shelters for many years to come if the country`s financial institutions will not revise loan conditions, an international housing expert has warned.
Briefing journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Brad Lester, Overseas Programme Manager of Rooftops Canada, said financial institutions including commercial banks have not rescheduled loan conditions to accommodate the needs of poor Tanzanians.
``The demands for having decent houses among the poor are too high but financial resources are very limited,`` Lester said.
He said lack of sustainable housing microfinance was the key challenge in improving the housing sector in Tanzania and other developing countries.
According to the expert, most people in Tanzania had no access to housing loans, and even when there were, interest rates were too high for the poor to afford.
He said many poor people had no collateral as required by commercial banks, hence making it difficult for them to have decent shelters.
As one of the strategies to address such challenges, Rooftops Canada, FinMark Trust, Habitat for Humanity International and other stakeholders have organized a five-day international workshop on housing microfinance slated for Monday, next week, in Dar es Salaam.
The international workshop is expected to draw participants from 22 countries across the globe, 14 of which will be from Africa.
The workshop is titled `Growing Sustainable Housing Microfinance Options in Sub-Saharan Africa: Enhancing the relevance and scale of housing finance for the poor.`
``This is the first initiative to bring together key players in an emerging housing microfinance sector in the region,`` he said.
Among key players at the meeting include investors, financers, donor and support agencies, housing lenders, experienced intermediaries and retailers.
``The workshop will deal with a key problem on how to increase the capacity of Housing microfinance organizations to scale-up and get housing on the ground for the benefit of the majority poor in sub-Saharan Africa,`` he explained.
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