The African Development Bank (AfDB) has invested $8.2m in Shelter Afrique, a Pan-African finance institution exclusively supporting the development of the housing and real estate sector in Africa.

This news comes in the wake of the financier revealing a $25m deal with the Islamic Development Bank and announcing a new strategy to dramatically increase its capital base.

The equity investment by the AfDB is meant to strengthen Shelter Afrique’s balance sheet and help achieve its objective of providing quality affordable housing in Africa.

“Africa’s economic landscape remains positive with promising scope for growth; Gross Domestic Product remains robust supported by multiple factors. The continent’s growing population, a growing middle class and the fastest urbanization rate in the world are some of the factors driving increased demand for affordable houses and housing finance,” the AfDB said.

James Mugerwa, Managing Director at Shelter Afrique, said: “The African Development Bank has sent strong signals about the seriousness of housing on the continent, and by extension the seriousness of what we do here at Shelter Afrique, it is a welcome development but we see it as a challenge as well.”

“This equity increase means the AfDB wants to see more, they want to see impact and scale and that is what we will be aiming for this year; impact,” he added.

The AfDB has stated that the investment is well aligned to AfDB’s Ten Year Strategy for the period 2013-2022, as well as one of the Bank’s High Strategic Priorities of “Improving the Lives of People in Africa”.

Shelter Afrique is owned by 44 African Sovereign shareholders categorized as Class A shareholders.

The Class B shareholders are the African Development Bank and the Africa RE organization.

With the increase equity, the AfDB a Class B shareholder has become the largest shareholder in the organization, making the housing financier an unofficial subsidiary of the AfDB.