Empowa and Blockchain: Transforming Affordable Housing in Africa with the Nairobi Securities Exchange

Founded by Glen Jordan in 2021, Empowa is the company behind the transformation of affordable housing finance, enabling the building of climate-resilient housing for those financially excluded from existing financial systems across Africa. 

According to Glen Jordan, “the housing crisis in Africa is not poverty-based but structural.” Research has proven what everyone living in Africa knows, more than 85% of income is informal, meaning that it is unrecorded, intermittent and variable. The only financial product for a complete home is a mortgage, which requires formal proof of regular, consistent income. This means that more than 85% of African consumers are immediately excluded from the housing finance market. Empowa asserts that a new financial platform is required to enable flexible payments that meet the needs of these families, and cashflow management and data to meet the needs of capital. By matching the needs of these consumers to the needs of capital, an entirely new market is opened to address the missing 85% and address the backlog of 50 million homes across Africa.  

Empowa has already demonstrated success in Beira, Mozambique. “In Mozambique (one of poorest countries in the world), we wanted to demonstrate that users could still pay for housing, they need flexible technology to manage cash flows – intermittent and informal – even though they were bunchy.” It recently released the impact report from third party research organization, 60Decibels, to demonstrate this proof of success. While not one of the families had applied for or qualified for a mortgage, after 12 months despite 40% of families having an unforeseen financial “event”, 96% of payments were made on time and an average of 15% of the capital had been repaid. 88% of families felt safer from climate risks (cyclones in this area) and there was a 20% improvement in green construction. 

The agreement with the NSE is part of a broader collaboration to provide affordable housing on a rent-to-own basis through alternative distribution mechanisms, because the banks cannot address the informal market. “Our project with the NSE is to tokenize these assets … and demonstrate that we can use tokenization to reduce costs, provide liquidity, and fundamentally transform the affordable housing finance market,” said Glen in a statement while presenting the project to the ECC Cardano Catalyst Ideafest F12. Empowa’s project is a foundation model tokenization service that allows co-ownership and co-investment while allowing those who do not qualify for a mortgage, the ability to get onto the housing ladder.  

“Such a great business model that needs more exposure. So many are going to benefit from what Empowa has built!” tweeted another enthusiast, Marshall Stark.

“Very few people in developed countries understand how the existing financial systems are designed for their societies and how they are not fit for purpose in the developing world. We need to design financial products and systems that meet the needs of our societies but maintain the financial reporting and discipline that capital require. We need to build systems from the bottom-up,” said Glen during the Tech for Impact Summit 2024. Most income in countries like Kenya comes from the ‘hustle economy’ not formal jobs, but this group ends up paying more per square meter to live in informal settlements than their counterparts in formal settlements. Empowa is building a new system that makes the payment for housing visible—to provide returns and attract investment and enable people to live in decent spaces. It is not a question of poverty; it is a function of the financial system.

“Mortgages require set monthly incomes to determine affordability, which just doesn’t align with how most people get paid in Africa,” said Greg Schneider, the COO of Empowa. “With our model, buyers pay each month and build equity at their own pace. It makes homeownership so much more viable.”