In 2010, FMO became a significant minority shareholder of Chartwell Housing Finance Solutions (Proprietary) Ltd (Chartwell), a South African company dedicated to making home ownership affordable. Chartwell is an entrepreneurial and innovative company that offers a combination of advisory services and product design, supported by a state-of-the art loan origination and administration platform. Chartwell is a strong supporter of responsible lending. It puts great effort into preparing future homeowners for their rights and responsibilities. The company has strict policies and procedures in place for this purpose. Recently, Chartwell rolled out an employee homeownership scheme for a large mining group in South Africa that offers mineworkers in lower salary grades the opportunity to buy a house over 15 years and thereby build a better future. The affordable housing sector is growing in Africa. We believe it has great potential. Both FMO and Chartwell believe strongly in the power of home ownership to change people’s lives and we share an entrepreneurial outlook on how best to tackle the many challenges facing housing markets in different African countries. Our investment in Chartwell is complementary to our housing strategy, since Chartwell is involved in the sector as an advisor and FMO as a financier. Chartwell’s excellent network and promising pipeline is expected to provide opportunities for FMO to finance housing projects with a high development impact and a solid …