AfDB is to provide a US$20mn line of credit to Shelter Afrique for its trade finance programme, launched in 2011.

Shelter Afrique will use the four-year credit facility to boost the availability of trade finance instruments to SMEs in real estate and construction-related activities across Africa.

“The construction industry is growing at 20% each year, but this cannot sufficiently address the rising demand for housing partly due to a wide financing gap for construction and building materials. The public and private sectors have so far been unable to deliver sufficient resources to meet this expanding working capital requirement. Where funding is available, pricing remains prohibitive,” the company says in a statement.

Also this week, the AfDB has approved two grants and a loan amounting to US$105.26mn to finance the Lovua-Tshikapa section of the Batshamba-Tshikapa road project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The whole project is being co-financed the UK Department for International Development and the African Development Fund.