The Forum on Housing Finance in the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) took place on Friday 15 March in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. In the presence of the entire value chain of activity, several proposals were made to meet the housing challenge in the region.

In Côte d'Ivoire, at least 80,000 homes would therefore have to be produced annually to reduce an accumulated deficit estimated at more than 800,000 units, underlined Bruno Koné, the Ivorian Minister of Construction, Housing and Urbanism. “This represents more than 40,000 billion CFA francs (60 billion dollars), or four times the country's annual budget,” he said

The magnitude of the deficit prompted Côte d'Ivoire to initiate the presidential program of 25,000 public social housing units, marking the return of the State to a field where experience shows that the needs exceed the financial capacity of the private sector. The project is financed by the State through the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), the West African Development Bank (BOAD) and other financial partners