Absa finances housing for poor

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s biggest retail bank Absa has secured a 40 million-euro loan from France’s development agency to help fund low-income housing, it said yesterday.

Absa, majority-owned by Britain’s Barclays Plc, said the loan from the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) is repayable over 10 years. South Africa faced a big backlog of low-cost houses despite the building of 2,4 million houses for low-income earners over the past decade, Absa said in a statement.”Government statistics put the number of families currently living in informal dwellings at around 2,3 million – an increase of 26 per cent over the same period.The Absa-AFD agreement will go some way towards easing the situation,” Absa said in a statement.The AFD has been involved in South Africa since the country’s first all-race elections in 1994.Nampa-ReutersSouth Africa faced a big backlog of low-cost houses despite the building of 2,4 million houses for low-income earners over the past decade, Absa said in a statement.”Government statistics put the number of families currently living in informal dwellings at around 2,3 million – an increase of 26 per cent over the same period.The Absa-AFD agreement will go some way towards easing the situation,” Absa said in a statement.The AFD has been involved in South Africa since the country’s first all-race elections in 1994.Nampa-Reuters