Shelter Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB) has opened a FCFA 60 billion sustainable bond to West African investors, with subscriptions closing on 30 October 2026, to fund affordable housing.
The Nairobi-based lender wants to finance housing developers in the same currency they earn, which removes the exchange-rate risk that comes with dollar loans. The offer, worth about US$100 million, is the bank’s first bond with a sustainability label.
It comes in two parts: a five-year tranche paying 6.10 per cent and a seven-year tranche paying 6.30 per cent. Subscriptions opened on 7 October. Each tranche carries a two-year grace period on principal repayment, with notes priced at FCFA 10,000 each, according to details the arranger presented to investors at a roadshow in Abidjan in September.
The need is large. ShafDB cites World Bank Group estimates that put the housing shortfall in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) at about 3.5 million units, with roughly 250,000 more homes needed each year as populations grow and cities expand. WAEMU’s eight members, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, share the CFA franc, which is pegged to the euro at FCFA 655.957.
Dakar-based CGF Bourse is lead arranger. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group’s private-sector arm, and Ecobank Group, through Ecobank Senegal, have signed on as anchor investors. The regional financial markets regulator has approved the issue.
Nabil Mahfoudh, ShafDB’s Director of Treasury, said the bank was “connecting local savings with urgent development needs” by expanding in West African capital markets.
ShafDB is no newcomer to the region. It has tapped the WAEMU market five times before, starting in 2014, when CGF Bourse also served as arranger. Across all markets it has completed 11 bond issues, the most recent a NGN 46 billion (about US$110 million) raise in Nigeria in April 2022.
The bank built its Sustainable Financing Framework with the Global Green Growth Institute. S&P Global Ratings confirmed the framework aligns with the International Capital Market Association’s green and social bond principles and sustainability bond guidelines.
The issue sits within ShafDB’s push to become a full pan-African multilateral development bank. Founded in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1981, it is owned by 44 African countries, and some are increasing their commitment. On 22 July 2026, Côte d’Ivoire’s cabinet approved a US$17 million loan from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa that will lift the country’s stake in ShafDB from 4 per cent to 10 per cent and secure it a permanent board seat.
The bond is large against the bank’s recent lending. ShafDB more than doubled loan disbursements to US$63 million in 2025, while profit rose 20 per cent to US$2.14 million and its net loan portfolio grew 29 per cent to US$174 million. At full subscription, the West African raise alone would equal about 1.6 times what the bank disbursed in the whole of last year.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Thierno-Habib Hann said aligning loan currencies with project revenues would cut borrowers’ exposure to foreign-exchange risk.
East Africa is next. ShafDB plans a US$500 million multi-currency bond in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda in the first quarter of 2027.
