Government of Guinea, UNOPS and SHS holdings partner to build affordable homes
Guinea will join one of the largest affordable housing initiatives in the world, following a new agreement that will see some 200,000 affordable homes built over the next 10 years. The project will help to reduce poverty and generate local economic growth.
“On the instructions of the President of the Republic of Guinea, the government has placed under my authority the Presidential affordable housing programme among its highest priorities, considered as an essential tool in the fight against poverty and the promotion of social and economic inclusion,” said Prime Minister and Chief of the Guinean government Dr. Ibrahima Kassory Fofana.
"This project constitutes an important support for the programme of affordable housing championed by the government, which is both intensive in labour and in capital, thus representing an economic stimulus that will have a positive effect on reducing unemployment in the country,” he added.
All of the new homes will feature renewable energy and disease preventative technology – including solar panel roofs, waste-to-energy technology and mosquito-repelling coatings. At least 100,000 of the new homes will be made available to civil servants through a scheme which supports housing payments via payroll.
UNOPS and SHS will seek to mobilize resources from third-party investors to fund the initiative – which has a gross development value (based on the sales value of completed homes) of up to $8 billion.
“It is a great honour to help increase access to affordable homes for the people of Guinea. UNOPS is strongly committed to helping find new ways to finance inclusive, resilient and sustainable development activities that generate positive social, economic and environmental impacts,” said United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Chief Executive of S3I, Vitaly Vanshelboim.
"Through this partnership, Guinea will reap all the advantages associated with the development of a housing programme of this scale in all its technical, financial, social and economic dimensions,” said Guinea’s Minister for Urban and Territorial Planning Dr. Ibrahima Kourouma.
The announcement brings the total number of affordable homes under the S3I initiative to about 1.3 million worldwide over the next decade. It follows a similar agreement announced recently with the government of Ekiti State in Nigeria to build 50,000 affordable homes over the next decade.
