Spotlight on
Housing Finance Foundation
The Housing Finance Foundation is a subsidiary of Housing Finance Group,
the tertiary
a leading mortgage company for housing in Kenya. During the course of
level. The
Housing Finance’s daily business activities, the company recognised there
tertiary level,
was a shortage of skilled labor. With Kenya’s burgeoning economic growth
though, is
and subsequent construction boom, there is an increasing number of sub-
usually where
standard buildings and an unmet demand for specific skills in the building
students
and construction sector. One estimate from the African Development Bank
receive technical
indicates a skills gap in the sector whereby 75 percent of the artisans are
skills training
not formally or adequately trained.
for the building
The company established the Housing Finance Foundation to deliver,
facilitate, and catalyse the creation of an employable, effective, and
entrepreneurial building and construction workforce for the Kenyan and East
Africa regional markets, through facilitating the creation of an “Army of One
Million Artisans.”
The organisation’s core objectives are a direct response to the challenges
in the building and construction industry and have been designed to be a
significant contributor to addressing high youth unemployment - estimated
at 35 percent by The World Bank.
and construction
industry. Unfortunately,
little additional support was
being provided for this level
of education.
A key area in which the Foundation plays a
role is to catalyse and facilitate the development of a
competency based curriculum, to be used in technical training institutes
throughout the country. Using this type of curriculum in classes will ensure
that the skills being taught are what the market actually requires.
The Foundation is working to transform the building and construction
industry to improve the quality and efficiency of construction and
workmanship, while expanding the employability of youth, and consequently
improving their livelihoods. The Foundation works closely with the
Government of Kenya, the National Construction Authority (NCA), the
Technical and Vocational Education, and Training Authority (TVETA), a
The Foundation’s Army of One Million Artisans initiative was granted
“Flagship Status” by Kenya’s Vision 2030, a national long-term development
blue-print to create a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a
high quality of life by 2030. Kenya’s Vision 2030 is very much aligned to the
MDG’s and SDG’s as well.
multitude of industry players in the private sector, and global training
In terms of data, the Foundation works with different government agencies
experts to facilitate programs that will deliver their vision of creating an
and industry players to obtain and analyse Kenyan labor statistics to inform
Army of One Million Artisans.
its focus areas. One activity the Foundation would like to do more of is
The Foundation has three basic strategies. The first strategy is creating
relevant skills, the second is to improve financial access for TVET students,
institutions and artisans related to building and construction, and the third
is creating markets that work for the artisans by developing a platform that
will link participants/trainees to the market to ensure access to employment
opportunities and resources such as toolkits.
The Foundation examined the skills development market and realised that
collaborating with other partners to rebrand TVET Education and TVET
Graduates. In Kenya, TVETs have emerged as the last resort for youth
deemed to have failed or who have dropped out of secondary school. This
stigmatization follows them in the job market which is characterised by
the low remuneration of TVET graduates. They seek to destigmatise TVET
education amongst youth and in society in order to increase demand, while
also changing the perception of the building and construction industry
towards TVET graduates.
most organisations focused on the secondary education level and omitted
The Housing Finance Foundation (HFF) is a subsidiary of the Housing Finance
Company of Kenya Ltd. It endeavors to deliver, facilitate, and catalyse industryrelevant and sustainable practical skills required by the building and construction
industry. It does this through an initiative titled ‘Army of 1 Million Artisans’ for
Kenya. This initiative is a flagship project of Kenya’s Vision 2030 program. HFF’s three main pillars are to improve the
quality and quantity of skilled artisans, improve financial access for TVET students, institutions, and artisans, and
create markets that work for artisans.
© 2015 Foundation Center, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, United Nations Development Programme,
the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Ford Foundation, and The MasterCard Foundation.