Congo: an institutional and strategic support to the Banque Congolaise de l’Habitat (BCH)

In Congo, there is an urgent need to curb the proliferation of precarious housing by actively supporting the housing supply. The Banque Congolaise de l‘Habitat (BCH) is a structure created by the Congolese government in 2007 with the social objective of financing housing to facilitate access to decent social housing for low-income populations.

On April 18, 2023, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group approved a near USD 650.000 grant to the Republic of Congo from the resources of with a view to financing support for the Congolese Housing Bank (BCH) in its revival and contributing to the strengthening of the housing finance system in Congo.

The primary objective of this technical assistance is to improve BCH‘s governance framework and management system to facilitate its recovery. Support for BCH will consist of capacity building to enable it to establish its governance and business management fundamentals so that it can regain compliance with the required prudential standards in order to attract strategic and technical partnerships that will help it in the medium and long term to adequately fulfil its primary mission of financing safe, high-quality, affordable housing.

This technical assistance project has been based on the preparatory mission financed by the UMDF. Carried out in 2022, the mission involved the assessment of the situation of the Congolese Housing Bank (BCH) and the design of a roadmap for comprehensive and sustainable support that the AfDB could provide to this institution and the country.