Part of UNOPS Sustainable Infrastructure Impact Investments (S3I) initiative, the agreement will help address Guinea’s housing deficit with affordable and sustainable solutions.
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.
“We are delighted to welcome Guinea to the S3I initiative family. Innovative public-private solutions like this will have a profound impact on the welfare and lives of the people of Guinea,” said Grete Faremo – Under-Secretary-General and UNOPS Executive Director.
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.
“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.
Original source: UNOPS
Published on 13 July 2020
