CAPE TOWN - The World Bank has announced that it will donate $500 billion in aid to Egypt to improve access to housing for low-income households.
The bank said it hoped the contribution would strengthen the capacity of Egypt’s social housing and mortgage finance fund to design policies and coordinate social housing programmes.
The financing complements the ongoing Inclusive housing finance programme that has benefitted 287,600 households across the country since 2015.
Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Egypt’s minister of international cooperation, said “affordable housing is essential to contributing to national socio-economic development and the achievement of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals” in that country.
She also said that urbanisation and development are intrinsically linked to one another, and that Egypt's partnership with the World Bank builds on the Inclusive housing finance programme’s success in creating safe and affordable housing, and in building resilient societies and economies.
The World Bank statement also said that it would assist the programme to deliver on subsidies and increase the number of beneficiaries by 31 percent, thereby contributing to the government's target of supporting more than one million homes for low-income households by 2024.