Development finance for housing is missing reality in Africa’s cities

Economy

Development institutions are financing African housing as though private developers aren’t already building it. In the DRC, that assumption is costing millions their chance at a permanent home.

When development institutions design housing programs for sub-Saharan Africa, they typically imagine a city waiting for formal systems to arrive. In Kinshasa — one of the continent’s most populous cities — that scenario does not exist.

The sequence development institutions assume is backwards.

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