Egypt: World Bank supports housing for low-income households with $500m
The World Bank has granted Egypt a $500 million additional financing destined to support ongoing efforts to improve the affordability of formal housing for low-income households, the Washington-based institution said in a statement.
The financing also seeks to strengthen Egypt’s Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund capacity to design policies and coordinate social housing programs.
Egypt’s has embarked on a national housing finance program, which has, according to the World Bank, benefited 287,600 households across the country since 2015.
The program targets the population underprivileged segment and 57 per cent of beneficiaries are married couples with young children.
“Affordable housing is essential to contributing to national socio-economic development and the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals,” said Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation, Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, who also represents Egypt on the World Bank’s Board of Governors.
“Urbanization and development are indivisibly linked to one another. Our partnership with the World Bank builds on the Inclusive Housing Finance Program’s success in creating safe and affordable housing, and in building resilient societies and economies,” the official added.
The program is lined with the World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework with Egypt. The partnership framework is based on several pillars. The first encompasses building Egypt’s human capital through developing a better education system, implementing health reforms and expanding social safety nets.
The second seeks to improve Egypt’s competitiveness through private sector-led growth, supporting transformation to a digital economy and catalyzing entrepreneurship for job creation while the third focuses on improving governance and building local government capacity to deliver better services to citizens.
The institution currently funds 12 projects with a total budget of 5.9 billion, complemented by the Bank’s global knowledge and analytical services.
