Inaugural strategy to boost Kenyan home ownership

The Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company (KMRC) was established as a non-deposit-taking financial institution to provide long-term funds to primary mortgage lenders. It was set up in the backdrop of low home ownership rates in urban centres across Kenya, occasioned by limited and inaccessible housing finance as well as the high cost of housing.

The government’s Big Four agenda, adopted in 2017, established the provision of affordable housing and facilitation of home ownership, as one of the government’s main development objectives for the period 2017-2022, under the third medium-erm plan (MTP III) of Kenya’s Vision 2030.

To ensure that KMRC is able to start delivering on its mandate effectively and efficiently soon after it begins operations, it set out to develop its first strategic plan. To this end, the National Treasury of Kenya commissioned Genesis to develop the inaugural 2020-2024 strategic plan.

This plan documented the current and forecasted market conditions in the housing sector, the best practice among KMRC’s peer organisations and current stakeholder sentiments on the needs and remedies for the housing and housing finance markets. Based on these and the organisation’s mandate, the strategic document outlined KMRC’s vision, mission and values, as well as its strategic objectives and their accompanying strategic initiatives.

Finally, a detailed implementation plan, and monitoring and evaluation framework were presented to ensure the achievement of the outlined strategic objectives. This strategy was accepted by the KMRC board and the National Treasury and the management team has been implementing it.