Africa - 2
AHI has carried out projects in the countries below, or has blogs and/or resources on them.
South Africa
Weblog
Weblog by AHI’s Kecia Rust.
2006, November 17, Pretoria, South Africa
Workshop on tax credits
Activities: Presentation
At the request of the South African National Treasury, and along with AHI affiliates Kecia Rust and Marja Hoek-Smit, as well as South African housing expert Dan Smit, and Soula Proxenos, formerly of Fannie Mae IHFS and now with Howard Housing Solutions, AHI's founder David Smith gave a presentation on investment tax credits as an affordable housing production fiscal incentive. In his talk, David emphasized that:
- Investment tax credits as a tool but before they are introduced, government must be precise about the affordable housing problem it is seeking to solve.
- As soft equity, tax credits are a unique form of money with peripheral benefits, some of which cannot be replicated by appropriated programs.
- Tax credits as a tool work best if a country already has a particular existing suite of tools, and in concert with those tools.
- Program design should precede feasibility analysis.
2005, September, South Africa
Rural Housing Loan Fund and African Microfinance Conference
Activities: Presentation
David Porteous spoke on Housing Microfinance at the second African Microfinance Conference in Cape Town from 29 August - 1 September. His presentation is available here. The talk was reported in the South African business press, which picked up the fact that housing microfinance was growing in importance as urbanization continued apace throughout Africa. In the talk, Porteous called for scalable solutions to housing finance needs of poor urban people, and pointed to some emerging examples of new generation housing microfinance such as the Cemex Patrimonio Hoy program in Mexico and CODI slum upgrading processes in Thailand.
2004/2005, South Africa
South Africa National Treasury
Activities: Program design
Reviewed proposals from private sector for the design of a large scale mortgage finance risk sharing and facilitation process, known as Project Sizwe, to enable and enhance the input of National Treasury into the negotiations around Project Sizwe, which is a key part of the country's Financial Sector Charter.
2004, November, South Africa
Rockefeller Foundation (www.rockfound.org)
Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS - www.jchs.harvard.edu)
Activities: Key meetings
South Africa, Johannesburg: AHI Founder David Smith and AHI Managing Director David Porteous, in a continuing partnership with Harvard's JCHS, visited South Africa to secure the participation of some of the country's top housing officials for ambitious international conference focusing on affordable housing delivery in four emerging countries. The trip was highly successful, and AHI looks forward to a productive conference in the Spring of 2005.
2003, December South Africa
Banking Council (www.banking.org.za)
Activities: National gaps assessment, stakeholder symposium, program design
As part of the banking sector's implementation of the landmark Financial Sector Charter, developed and facilitated a two-day workshop convening roughly 30 stakeholders from across the banking sector. Participants identified over 20 interventions - competitive, collaborative, partnering with government, or government-inaugurated - that could help the financial sector deliver R20 billion into affordable housing over the next five years. Details here.
2003, June, South Africa
Finmark Trust (www.finmark.org.za)
Activities: Stakeholder education, National Gaps Assessment, Program Design
Preparation and delivery of a concept paper illustrating how Tax Relief Incentives (TRI's) - that is, fiscal incentives sold for cash via equity syndication - can be used as a tool to promote affordable housing. Analysis of the urban regeneration tax initiative (URTI) proposed in the South African Revenue Service (SARS) FY 04 budget proposal, and recommendations for improvements thereto.
2003, January, South Africa
Finmark Trust (www.finmark.org.za)
Activities: Stakeholder education
Preparation and delivery of four small workshop-style briefings (to a total of 35 national opinion-makers) on affordable housing, production incentives, the role of soft debt and soft equity, and the use of fiscal instruments such as tax credits to stimulate production of affordable housing.
South Africa: Using Tax-Relief Incentives (TRI's) to Stimulate Affordable Housing
With commentary on the proposed Urban Regeneration Tax Initiative. This report was prepared for FinMark Trust, Ltd., by the Affordable Housing Institute. To stimulate urban regeneration and affordable housing, South Africa should make use of fiscal initiatives – specifically, custom-designed income tax incentives – to stimulate investment of private equity capital into targeted geographies, activities, and development programs.
More (Africa 1 - Egypt, Kenya)