The African Development Bank approved a US $15-million senior loan to GHL Bank PLC, which focuses on mortgage finance, to enhance its mortgage loan portfolio and help develop an effective affordable mortgage finance sector in Ghana.

Ghana's lower-middle and middle-income earners will now have greater access to long-term affordable mortgage finance. GHL Bank PLC was previously the only specialized mortgage finance institution in Ghana, helping to address the national housing shortage by providing long-term finance to lower-middle and middle-income new homebuyers. It has disbursed over US $191 million in mortgage loans, benefiting more than 3,000 households, serving the majority of Ghana's urban and suburban centres.

The senior loan will have multiplier effects on housing sector industries and employment in the mortgage value chain. It will complement the government's efforts to develop a self-sustaining long-term affordable mortgage market and encourage orderly urban development for providing basic utilities such as water, sanitation, roads and electricity.

The intervention is in line with the Bank's High 5 agenda and specifically "Improving the quality of life for the people of Africa." It complements the Bank's current initiatives to support affordable housing and development of mortgage finance institutions in Africa. The Bank supports investments that help widen and deepen financial systems in Africa, and that enable the private sector to mobilize and access long-term local currency funding from local financial and debt markets.