Ghana Primary Mortgage Market Initiative
Call for Expressions of Interest
Background
IFC is establishing a three year technical assistance (TA) program (the Ghana Housing Finance Market Initiative) to foster the large scale opening of the primary mortgage market. Alongside the TA, IFC will in invest in several financial institutions in Ghana to help develop their mortgage operations. The proposed investment is $30 million USD.
The adoption of a market-oriented mortgage system will assist improve the lives of the many families who live in unsafe, substandard, or severely cramped housing conditions. Additionally, the creation of an active and organized residential mortgage market will stimulate the growth of several supporting industries including construction, building materials, architecture and design, real estate agencies. Many downstream industries, such as small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in furniture making, will benefit from expansion of housing markets. This will spur growth in skilled and semi-skilled employment.
The Program will have a three pronged approach:
- Improving supportive processes particularly land titling, and working with supporting industries, such as appraisal firms, credit bureaus, real estate brokerage companies and agents to build all of the components necessary for a strong mortgage market;
- Working with government officials to improve the legal, tax and regulatory framework for mortgage finance. This work will be on foreclosure and eviction rules, mortgage provisioning rules, promotion of a secondary mortgage market, and incentives in the tax code to promote home ownership;
- Working with financial institutions to develop and launch mortgage products. The program will provide capacity building to select financial institutions to develop their mortgage products, services and processes.
The Program will deliver the following long-term benefits:
- creation of long term high quality mortgage lending operations;
- availability of long-term, local currency funding;
- ability of lenders to serve consumers with efficiency and honesty;
- competitive forces operating in an open and unfettered market place;
- provision of bankable and affordable housing;
- increased economic activity; and,
- expansion of mortgage lending and construction finance.
IFC’s experience in other countries has shown that combining technical assistance and investment in the housing finance sector is an extremely high-leverage approach to increase living standards, to expand capital markets, and to foster private sector development.
Criteria for Technical Partner Selection
IFC will seek partnerships with one firm or consortium to deliver the bank capacity building component of this technical assistance program. Firms/consortiums interested in being considered for full invitations to tender should submit expressions of interest of no more than 4 pages, establishing the following minimum criteria:
- Experience in designing and implementing successful housing/mortgage finance programs in at least 10 commercial banks and other formal sector financial institutions.
- Ground-level experience working in housing finance in at least 5 countries in sub-SaharanAfrica.
- Management of at least 5 concurrent long-term technical assistance projects outside their country of origin.
- Permanent staff of at least 6 professionals in housing finance advisory services.
- Firms are permitted to respond as joint ventures or consortia. If responding in this manner, they should list prior instances where they have cooperated in project implementation.
- IFC will select a shortlist of firms which will then receive full tender documents for this program.