She Builds

Anne K. Rweyora is an industrial designer and a Ugandan who was homeless for 30+ years. She has experienced first-hand how a lack of quality housing compromises people's development potential, and is on a mission to change this narrative in Africa. As managing director at Smart Havens Africa, Anne works to provide low-cost, eco-friendly affordable housing solutions for low income families, putting community needs at the heart of every project.Anne was the Winner of The prestigious Africa prize of innovation and Engineering by royal academy of engineering, She is an alumnus of GSBI, and  a current fellow of Global good fund, Anne has been recognized by several international and local media including CNN and BBC

In most Africa countries,owning ahome is nearly impossible for women earning lessthan $8,aday.High-costs &low-incomes shut these women out of the formal-financial-markets &limit their access to finance making it hard for them to buy-or-build a home.Many pay a high proportion of their income in rent &are trapped in rental-poverty as a result

Many families have lost their income because of COVID-19.Our goal is to ensure they don’t lose their homes,too because It’s clear that aglobal response that requires-staying at home,washing hands &social distancing will not work for 48.5million women in Africa living without adequate shelter. 

Our model is designed to enable low-income women to invest in Affordable-housing without-further deepening their-poverty.It aims to increase the quality&value of Women’s homes,increasing Women-financial-stability &quality of life.Our solution ensures that Women can own an assert enjoy stable lives,engage in meaningful-employment &still maintain sufficient disposable-income to liveon thus contributing to UN SDGS1,5,6,8,11&13. 

It is widely recognized that women in many countries around the world are far less likely than men to own property &otherwise control assets.In Africa, only 13% of women claim sole ownership of some housing (World Bank), Women’s lack of property ownership contributes to women’s low social status &their vulnerability to poverty.It is also increasingly linked to development-related, problems, including,HIV/AIDS,hunger,urbanization &Gender Based-Violence 

Like in most  African countries 70% of Uganda's Urban-population are Women who live in slums that are overcrowded &often lack basic infrastructure such as water and sanitation,landlords collect  over 50% On average of each tenants monthly  take home income and the poor houses are  rented indefinitely,with no clear path to economic &personal growth 

 According to Centre-for-Housing-finance-in-Africa only 4.45% of Ugandans can afford to buy outright a lowcost home of $20,000,Access to finance is a major challenge for women earning lessthan $8 per day&working in the informal sector,Lending to these Women by traditional banks&even microfinance institutions is deemed to be too risky&hence left within the rental poverty trap,few banks that will consider Home  financing have strict conditions that continue to rule out most active Women &other low-income-families  

Two innovations enable us to build affordable low-cost homes for women 

 Our technical innovation is a unique building technology that presses on-site locally available materials under optimum moisture to produce a brick(ISSB) that cuts costs by 50%,has a lower environmental footprint &speeds up construction.  

•Our financial innovation is a humane yet commercially viable rent-to-own plan that brings the cost of home ownership within reach of our target market, provides women with a quality affordable home without-deepening-their-poverty,Provides Women the opportunity to own atitled secure asset worth$19800 &earn extra $2,500 income peryear &a dramatic improvement in life prospects with a clear pathway to economic &financial security  

 SHA is the only Social-enterprise providing a complete package,finance & Affordable construction to make ownership of a high quality,eco-friendly home affordable to women earning lessthan $8 perday &SHA homes are built-for-women-by-women 

Our homes are aesthetically beautiful &with our technology we can build an affordable home btn $4000-8,000,giving us an opportunity to generate morethan,50% profit margin perhome &still beat the competition since according to Centre-for-Affordable-Housing-finance-in-Africa(CAHF)-2018-year-book,the cheapest house in Uganda costs $25,000 

 Our Solution provides a roof while creating jobs &protecting the environment 

SHA targets customer segments comprised of Urban Households headed by women on low incomes who live in low-class neighborhoods in slums&urban centers between ages of 20-45 &have 1-5children.Usually educated,one or both parents are employed or entrepreneurs &earn an average annual income of lessthan $3,000,asegment served inadequately by both the public&private sectors

Neither the public nor private-sectors meet their housing-needs.They are dissatisfied with their current home because of lack of space,poor-conditions ,Expensive &uncertain rents.They want a Partner who understands their pain &asustainable low-cost,Affordable solution like ours that delivers:Savings &income stability,Better health-and-access-to-other-necessities-of-life,Leads to Asset ownership,Enhanced personal image,Personal-growth &job opportunities 

We involve our customers in each step of our process,Recent customer engagement has shown that male &female needs are different.We showed families within our target group our 2bedroom home.While men were willing &ready to start payment,women considered their growing families &needs,&required a minimum 3bedroom house before making a long-term commitment.This customer engagement has completely changed our perspective,we must involve women in design of the homes since they make the final decisions on the choice of home for the family.This will help us increase sales &achieve 100% customer-satisfaction.

Building-affordable-housing for vulnerable-&low-income people in itself is laudable,but SHA does so much more—it provides arealistic path to home-ownership &asset creation for people,long relegated to the economic sidelines.SHA identifies &has constructed aprogram to help the-poor themselves overcome the many obstacles to home-ownership.The government has not provided &,likely,cannot,provide quality affordable housing,the private market has no incentive to price housing-affordably,the credit/mortgage market won’t undertake the underwriting burden,credit risk,or lend at concessionary rates,neither the-construction nor education/training-markets has given access-to-women for-construction or-masonry-training or-employment,&many-of the-poor have not-had access to financial-training or inclusion.SHA’s innovative-program addresses each of these injustices &empowers-marginalized-people to utilize their incomes to save &build-equity.

Anne’s Story  

When my father died leaving no will,my family were kicked off our home by relatives.For many years we were practically homeless.My mum fought for her rightful ownership of our home but eventually gave up.It affected our education,health &feeding. 

Despite qualifying to-study-civil-engineering at-Uganda’s prestigious Makerere-University,I couldn’t afford the fees since my mum was spending most of her hard to earn, earnings on rent.To spare my already over-worked mother,I settled for a government sponsored degree in industrial design 

Although I never fulfilled my dream of becoming a female civil engineer, it gave me an Intimate passion & Desire to help women like my mother and this led me to found Smart Havens Africa 

I want my story & experience to inspire others to follow their passions and drive change in the world.  

I am a good public speaker &communicator, which will help bring my story to a wide audience &build partnerships and support.  

I am Passionate about this work because of my personal story,the challenges i have gone through from childhood.

More information can be found in this presentation

https://shafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/10000000_233982114349309_5899421275463617059_n1-online-video-cutter.com_.mp4

Anne K Rweyora is the Managing Director and Founder of Smart Havens Africa, a for profit Social Enterprise established to provide an affordable pathway to homeownership for low income families in Africa starting with Uganda. In this role Anne brings vision, leadership and drive to SHA and to the partnerships for this project. She is a skilled communicator and has well developed influencing skills which will help to build the relationships necessary for a successful partnership. Anne is also a role model for women: she empathises closely with the women she is trying to help and this provides a powerful sense of purpose guiding those around her. Anne and her team have already made a great start through building 80+ homes and developing a social business model that is built on job creation and social impact through home ownership, financial inclusion and women empowerment in Uganda. They have a clear plan which will allow them to grow sustainably and achieve their wider vision of smart Havens Africa of getting low income women out of the poverty trap, providing them with a secure home to allow the whole family to flourish. Anne has the skills & abilities to contribute to Uganda & Africa’s Housing sector especially in helping low-income women dreaming of home ownership.  Anne has  always been a leader,a school prefect,Head girl and at university she was elected guild speaker.Anne likes team working and have more than 10 years experience in academic,humanitarian & development work. 

Here is the Video

https://vimeo.com/294018394

Our Presentation during Africa prize demonstrates how we have started Humberto beginning and are impacting lives

https://vimeo.com/436372465

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Existing options are traditional builders &contractors that are expensive,use burnt brick that harms the environment,rent homes indefinitely &leave customer with little or no savings &no clear path to economic &personal growth.Our solution provides a unique pathway to homeownership &the tools to gaining financial security for women.

With our model one can own a 2BH house at $5K as compared to $45K on the market

While use of traditional burnt brick causes mass deforestation,our blocks require no wood for firing.At least 50 trees are saved on every home built

Unlike traditional builders,for every home built we create 25 jobs for women,each receiving a $2,500 increase in income per year

In the next five years,we will build 625 homes with a-potential impact of  

• 3,125-lives impacted,(For every home we build it impacts 5 people on average) 

• 15625(9375-Direct-&6,250-indirect)-jobs created,( For every House that we Build,we create 25 jobs for women-mansons,) 

• $1.8Million,women’s income generated,(Each Woman Mason earns $8 perday,hence a$2,500 increase in income peryear.Employing these women is not only securing them work,but also helping to form strong role models for girls&encouraging them to eventually work in  male-dominated sector 

• 31,250 of Africa’s rare-Mature trees saved,( While wide use of burnt-brick causes mass deforestation across Africa,SHA bricks require no wood for firing.Atleast 50 of Africa’s increasingly rare mature trees are saved for every home we build,Air pollution is dramatically reduced by avoiding combustion process,&by eliminating the need for transport.

• 14,375metric-tonnes of carbon-emission reduced, 

• $12.34 Million in-client-owned-assets 

• Our revenues are expected  to grow&exceed $1.5million by 2023  

  Our-innovation enables low income women to afford agood-quality-home without-deepening their poverty,thus contributing to:  

  
  

  •SDG-1(No-Poverty)through increasing quality&value of women’s homes,increasing women’s financial stability &quality of life.Our solution ensures that our-clients can own an asset,enjoy,stable lives,engage in meaningful-employment &maintain sufficient-disposable-income to live-on  

   

  •SDG-5(Gender-Equality)& SDG-8(Decent-Work&Economic-Growth)through redressing the gender-balance in terms of housing-ownership& by creating jobs for female-masons(25per-house)

  •SDG-11(Sustainable-Cities &Communities)through assisting those women and low income families disadvantaged by market-failure by securing apathway to Affordable-homeownership recognizing that it is one way by which the poor-women can escape from housing-poverty 

   

  •SDG-13(Climate-Action)through reducing-carbon-emissions.In contrast to Burnt-Clay-Brick,ISSB require no-wood for firing.

The key barriers are demand generation,We lack capability in consumer research (important for improving our housing design for example) and in marketing strategy. We wish to build a strong brand identity for SHA and use that to help guide our marketing and communication with our target audience,We wish to understand our target audience better and gain deeper insights into their needs and drivers as this will support our scale.

We have partnered with GSBI fellows to address this problem,The Fellows Project Pitch on the link below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjIDUGY9J_k&feature=youtu.be

We currently work with the following donors and investors
Royal academy of engineering 
Islamic Development Bank
Global Social Benefit institute

Expo Live Innovation Grant Program
Ezra Charitable Trust

At Smart Havens Africa we focus on women.Our homes are built by them and for them, We  offer them a route out of poverty, through jobs, Financial Inclusion and affordable homes.We offer them training in property management and financial literacy and Provide Our-client-with key tools-to-a-secure-financial-Future. 

We manage the process of finding land, building Affordable homes, creating demand, screening & Vetting customers,&Payments Management. 

We will succeed because the business and impact models are well connected and create value and other incentives for everyone along the value chain from-financiers,-Builders, Sales-Agents to homeowners.  

We have already proven our ISSB technology, by-building 18 Affordable homes &have established a business blueprint.  

We have received over 400 clients’ whomwe have-vetted, screened-and are-waiting-to-start-their-journey-of-home-ownership-with-us, serving-them-would-generate-$792,000-of-annual-recurring-revenue 

Our vision is to impact 3,125-lives-by 2023(by building 625 homes)-and-there-after 50,000 lives-year-on-year-by-building-10,000-homes starting 2024. 

With-our-building-technology-including-the-cost-of-land-it-cost-us-between ($4,000-$8,000) to-build-one, two,or-three-bedroom-home- 

Our revenue comes from outright sales and from rent-to-own payments, which-lead to homeownership within 2-10 years 

1.Rent-to-Own-Payment($65-$165per-month)-we take 40% of every rent-to-own-monthly payment and-this-is-what-determines-our-profitability, 60% of every-month-payment is what-takes-a client’s-towards ownership  

2.10% of total homes built per year-are-sold-Outright ($10,000-$15,000), we make btn (30-53%) gross margin  

We have started anew 60 housing project expected to be completed in November  2020,Building and selling the current 60 homes will represent a major milestone for the business as we project that we will become self-sustaining at that point as this will be generating enough  Revenues year on Year and we enable us to become sustainable and profitable.We currently require only 46 housing units to turn profitable and we hope to achieve this by close of year 2020.These revenues will give us capacity to build 50 homes per year without external funding, Meaning any financing we secure will be basically to scale our impact.

Available Upon Request

Available Upon Request

Available Upon Request

We would greatly benefit from support from Elevate Prize during this project as we lack capability in consumer research (important for improving our housing design for example) and in marketing strategy. We wish to build a strong brand identity for SHA and use that to help guide our marketing and communication with our target audience. There is a lot of scope to work together with experts from the Elevate Prize to learn about techniques and tools we can apply to help improve the way we position our products with potential customers and communicate their benefits in sales promotions and other interventions. We wish to understand our target audience better and gain deeper insights into their needs and drivers which will help us improve our offering to them.We want to impact more families through home ownership. We expect that  in all there areas Elevate’s strengths and experience could be valuable.