Housing Africa’s growing population
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: KECIA RUST
- Published: December 3, 2024
Overview and context
- Informality dominates Africa’s cities, characterized by job seekers, migrants, and young people, and visible through traffic congestion, street trading, and informal housing.
- Adequate and affordable housing is a key driver of urban growth because it directly affects where and how people live, work, and access services; well-integrated housing supports efficient urban development, leverages increased population density, and stimulates local economic growth.
- More houses in Africa’s cities are built by informal than formal builders; more lending and investing for housing happen informally (hand to hand, rotating savings and credit associations, cooperatives, remittances) than through regulated channels.
- Informal processes are described as inefficient, expensive, opaque, and exploitative, but also nimble, responsive, with few barriers to entry, and expressive of the priorities, needs, and capacities of the majority of people across the continent.
Technological opportunities
- Blockchain technology
- Can create decentralized property registries or enforceable digital contracts that bypass cumbersome bureaucracy.
- Has been used by mortgage lenders in a number of countries to record liens on properties outside the formal cadastral system.
- Tested in informal settlements, including in KUMASI, GHANA, where a single ledger of land holdings was produced and paper-based evidence was converted into a digital format.
- Mobile apps
- In NIGERIA, allow informal builders and small-scale developers to access larger markets, facilitate fast, intuitive market participation, and enable engagement in formalized systems of trade and distribution.
- Users’ track records form a basis for lenders’ decisions about extending credit.
- Credit underwriting and guarantees
- Technology can better quantify risk and establish opportunity for return.
- The DJIBOUTI government has set up a guarantee fund that includes a provision of up to DF 10 million ($56,000) for “precarious households” that earn between $450 and $1,518 a year.
- Land tenure digitization and e-Title
- RWANDA’s 2013 Land Tenure Regularization program involved demarcation, land adjudication, digitization, and registration of all parcels of land.
- RWANDA has launched an electronic certificate system, referred to as “e-Title,” so landowners can quickly and cheaply access their title certificates on the National Land Authority’s official website.
- Geospatial tools
- Geographic information systems, drones, and satellite imagery can map the informal economy and provide realtime data on informal settlements, markets, and economic activities.
- The Centre for Housing Affordability in Africa will explore these policies and practices with the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy in KENYA in the coming year.
- E-lending and rent-to-buy models
- Blockchain reduces transaction costs and validates data, affecting housing affordability and market size for developers.
- A housing developer in MOZAMBIQUE found that using this technology made homes accessible to 80 percent of the population—previously they were accessible to only 3 percent of the population based on the existing mortgage model.
Case studies and examples (as presented)
- KUMASI, GHANA: single ledger of land holdings produced; paper evidence digitized.
- NIGERIA: mobile apps enabling informal builders and small-scale developers to reach larger markets and build credit histories.
- DJIBOUTI: guarantee fund provision up to DF 10 million ($56,000) for precarious households earning between $450 and $1,518 a year.
- RWANDA: 2013 Land Tenure Regularization program and “e-Title” electronic certificate system for landowners.
- MOZAMBIQUE: developer using blockchain made homes accessible to 80 percent of the population compared with 3 percent under the existing mortgage model.
- KENYA: upcoming joint exploration by the Centre for Housing Affordability in Africa and the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy.
Findings and implications for policy and investment
- Policymakers, regulators, and the private sector should aim to leverage informal housing processes rather than constrain them with inappropriate formalization.
- Better understanding of drivers of informality will help investors—public or private, institutional or individual—target housing investments correctly and build sustainable markets accessible to all city residents.
- Technology can bridge the flexibility of the informal economy with structured governance, enabling scalable solutions for property registration, credit access, market participation, and data-driven urban planning.
Key statistics and exact figures (preserved)
- DF 10 million ($56,000) — provision in DJIBOUTI guarantee fund.
- $450 and $1,518 a year — income range defined as “precarious households” in DJIBOUTI provision.
- 2013 — year RWANDA introduced the Land Tenure Regularization program.
- 80 percent — share of the population in MOZAMBIQUE now able to access homes produced by a developer using blockchain.
- 3 percent — previous share of the population able to access those homes under the existing mortgage model.
Housing Africa’s Growing Population, KECIA RUST, F&D Magazine, December 2024.