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Karibu Homes



Irfan Keshavjee
Founder

About Irfan Keshavjee

About Irfan Keshavjee

Irfan Keshavjee is the Founder of Karibu Homes, a groundbreaking Social Enterprise whose mission is to bring the dream of home ownership to low-income families in Kenya. He is also a Co-founder of Honey Care Africa, an award winning Social Enterprise which has brought over 12,000 smallholder farmers above the poverty line, and a Director of the White Rose Group which operates one of Kenya’s largest franchising and retail chains. He was recently selected as an Acumen Fund East Africa Fellow. He holds a degree in Engineering from Queen’s University, Canada, and an MBA from the University of Oxford, UK.



Country:  Kenya
Region:  Africa

Mission:  

To enable home ownership for families as far down the income ladder as commercially possible.


Sector:  Housing
Year Founded:  2010

Description:  

Today in urban Kenya, 60% of the population lives in the slums, simply because there are no homes being built that are affordable to low-income families. Demand for affordable housing outstrips supply five times. To address this issue we are building a community of 1000 homes at prices starting at USD 10,000. We are partnered with NACHU, Kenya's leading organization for community groups saving for affordable housing with over 250,000 members. NACHU is a source of prospective homebuyers, a mortgage provider, it trains members how to manage their mortgages and it is adept at grassroots community management. We collaborate with local industries and their employee savings cooperatives as their members fall within our target market for homebuyers. MRM, Kenya's leading supplier of roofing materials, is providing favorable terms to the project. Our routes to market will be through corporations, banks, and community savings groups, all of whom have expressed interest in buying our homes.


Social Impact:  

Affordable, quality housing for 1,000 low-income families in Kenya