Work

Financializing Africa's urban peripheries: the rise of housing microfinance

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Housing microfinance is transforming Africa's urban peripheries. While many actors, factors, and processes are driving the financialization of peripheral urban Africa, social enterprises and fintech (financial technology) play a key role in making these spaces the "new real estate frontier". At the same time, efforts to promote financial inclusion are hampered by longstanding challenges related to informality and state bureaucracy that are becoming important sites of regulatory reform and political contestation. The rise of housing micro-finance in urban Africa poses important questions and calls for more critical geographical research. In this piece, I highlight three themes that deserve particular attention: models and impacts, informality and fintech, and restructuring of states and urban governance.

Source: Human Science Research Council SA

DOI: 10.14749/32363652

Author: Human Sciences Research Council

Language: English

Topic: Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism

Subfield: Finance

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

Funder: Human Sciences Research Council

OpenAlex ID: W7162078829

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