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The African Development Bank announced today that it has approved a $28.2 million financing package for Shelter Afrique, a multilateral finance institution focused on housing development.

The Abidjan-based multilateral lender said its financing will put Shelter Afrique in a stronger financial position to support more housing development projects on the continent either directly or indirectly. The AfDB said its financing package consists of an equity investment of $8.2 million and an immediate loan of $20 million.

“These new resources show that the African Development Bank is fully committed to the growth and development of Shelter Afrique, which plays a vital and unique role in the development of affordable housing across Africa,” said Gabriel Negatu, Director General at AfDB’s East Africa Regional Development and Business Delivery Office.

Founded in 1982 and based in Nairobi, Kenya, Shelter Afrique is the only Pan-African finance institution that exclusively supports the development of the housing and real estate sector on the continent. The multilateral institution is owned by 44 African governments, the AfDB, and the Africa Reinsurance Company. As at 2014, Shelter Afrique had an authorized share capital of $1 billion and cumulative loan approvals of about $928.64 million.

The AfDB financing package comes after Shelter Afrique’s Extraordinary General Meeting, which held last month, where shareholders agreed unanimously to pay up their share capital commitments of about $116 million or face temporary suspension from membership by the end of 2017. The Shelter Afrique shareholders also agreed to expand the organization’s shareholder base this year to include African and non-African investors, who would take the lender’s development to the next stage.

According to the AfDB, Shelter Afrique’s Board of Directors recently contracted several interim executive managers to improve the organization’s financial management and governance capacity after a forensic audit revealed irregularities and shortcomings. The board decision was in response to press reports alleging that Shelter Afrique had overstated its asset quality and used substandard management operations.

“With the strong measures taken by Shelter Afrique to improve its governance and the support of its shareholders, the company can move to the next stage of its development,” Negatu said.