Student housing: Shelter Afrique invests in universities

Today, whereas the developed world enjoys a 60% penetration rate on average of its eligible population enrolled in tertiary education (with the World average being at 27%), the African continent has a tertiary enrolment rate of 6%, which is even lower and often below 3% when countries such as South Africa are excluded. This stark disparity is primarily due to the dire lack of adequate institutional facilities for the students.

For example: a large majority of candidates who meet the qualifications for public universities are denied enrolment access (75% in Kenya and Uganda) due to a lack of university facilities capacity alone; In Kenya, there is believed to be a shortage of in excess of 350 000 beds annually; Furthermore, even among the existing university student population, on average, 70% of students at public universities are forced to live in insecure temporary housing with slum-like conditions due to a lack of on-site facilities, which has been identified as one of the primary causes for poor performance and the high dropout rates at some of those universities.

Hence, Africa would need about 5.6 million more higher education places than its current facilities can accommodate. The cost of constructing the additional physical infrastructure needed to bring tertiary education penetration rate to just 13% in Africa, is a minimum of over US$46 billion, yet current international aid and local government funding has been less than US$1 billion a year, therefore leaving the private sector to address the magnitude of this pending crisis.

Access to higher education is one of the most important factors affecting long-term economic growth of countries and young people are the most important investment in our collective future, so Shelter Afrique is partnering with its member states as well as with highly experienced and specialized operators from private sector in a strong commitment to invest in a so far largely neglected niche of the real estate market: student housing.

Shelter Afrique's current pipeline of projects, with over US$100 million of identified university infrastructure opportunities, will construct facilities to accommodate over 30,000 additional university students each year across sub-Saharan Africa. This is indeed a drop in the sea but this is just a promising beginning!

Ms Nelly Defo is Head of Investments – Special Products at Shelter Afrique