A regional meeting called "The Universities of Habitat 2020" opened on Tuesday in Abidjan on the financing of the production of affordable housing in the space of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), noted APA. on site.These meetings, which will last forty-eight hours, have the objectives, among other things, of deepening the issues and identifying the obstacles encountered by the actors in terms of financing the production of affordable housing in the UEMOA space. “The issue of access to housing is a major challenge for Côte d'Ivoire. According to several studies carried out at national and regional level, the formalities of housing production, the low level of financing and the precariousness of access to land are all factors that hinder the access of our populations to housing and a framework decent life", indicated Bruno Nabagné Koné, the Ivorian Minister of Construction, Housing and Urban Planning in an opening speech at this meeting. Drawing up an inventory of the housing situation in Côte d'Ivoire, particularly in the Ivorian economic capital, Mr. Koné underlined that 40,000 new households, i.e. approximately 200,000 or 300,000 people, settle each year in Abidjan. "(...) We must add to this figure the cumulative deficit estimated to date at more than 500,000 housing units, most of which in the city of Abidjan", he continued, adding that this rate sustained urban growth has led the Ivorian authorities to initiate an "ambitious program" of social housing. Denouncing the weakness of housing credit in Côte d'Ivoire and in WAEMU, he considered that the success of these affordable housing production programs cannot be achieved without the involvement of the banking sector. "It is therefore imperative to change the paradigm by securing and facilitating access to land, by involving banks more in the financing of real estate", proposed Mr. Koné announcing a set of projects from his ministerial department. Among his imminent measures, he cited the establishment of a single land management platform and a single geodetic repository. Before him, Paul Koffi Koffi, the commissioner in charge of the department of community land use planning and transport of UEMOA specified that at the end of these meetings, a regional strategy for housing and creation of a housing center of excellence to strengthen the technical capacities of housing actors in the States for the implementation of national and sub-regional strategies. Previously, he recalled that these housing universities aim, among other things, to identify levers and possible solutions to improve the financing of the production of affordable housing in the UEMOA space. Organized by UEMOA in concert with its partners, the housing universities, which are being held for the first time in the sub-region, bring together private and public actors involved in the implementation of housing policies. Thematic workshops and a round table on the social and economic challenges of affordable housing in Africa are on the menu of this meeting which will end on Wednesday.