Housing in Southern Africa October 2015

Industry Buzz, Events & Products

T he African Union for Housing Finance (AUHF) 2015 confer- ence and exhibition will take place at the Safari Hotel and Confer- ence Centre in Windhoek, Namibia on October 26-28. The 31 st annual conference and exhibition attracts key stakeholders from the member associations of mortgage banks, building societies, housing corpo- rations and organisations to fund shelter and housing on the African continent. This year’s theme ‘Making Housing Finance Markets Work in Africa’ aims AUHF 2015 to address the changes in the market and there is clearly room for growth, by comparison to international mort- gage markets. The World Bank estimates that if only the top 3%of Africa’s population were to access mortgages, the con- tinent’s mortgage debt to GDP ratio could rise by 18% (excluding South Africa). This activity could contribute as much as US$300 billion to GDP across the continent. Then, there is the much wider market for non-mortgage housing The event is coupled with an exhibition of practitioners, lenders, developers and building material suppliers.The conference is presented by the AUHF in association with SBS Conferences and hosted by the Na- tional Housing Enterprise, Namibia. F o r f u r t h e r i n f o r m a t i o n email: antony@sbsco.za or visit www.sbs.co.za/auhf2015 ■ Free biometric support finance – pension backed lending, housing microfinance and savings to support households’ incremental housing processes.

I deco is the certified repair and maintenance agent for global electronics solutions company Safran Morpho in sub-Sahara Africa. Ideco Managing Director Marius Coetzee says, “We have more than 10 years of experience of intricate repairs. We go beyond board re- placements toguaranteeour cus- tomers the lowest total cost of ownership. More importantly,

In celebrating a decade of excellence, the South African biometric solutions provider Ideco is offering its partners and customers free support through its world-class repair and support centre.

devices and our repair centre has sufficient spares for all devices. For peace of mind, make sure you deal with one of our certified partners when selecting a biometric solu- tion,” he concludes. Ideco is regarded as Africa’s leader in the design, distribu- tion and integration of biometric solutions. This is largely due to the extensive and specialised experience gained from imple- menting notable large-scale civil and forensic projects. These include the world’s largest digital conversion of paper- based fingerprint records for the HANIS project of the South African Department of Home Affairs and the implementa- tion of an automated criminal background checking service in partnership with the South African Police Services (SAPS). In South Africa, Ideco has dis- tributedwell over 100 000 fingerprint readers which have been deployed to securely manage more than 2,5 million people in a diverse range of professionally-managed, security- conscious businesses. For more information contact Ideco on 086 104 3326 or visit www.ideco.co.za ■

we offer free support to all our partners and customers. That’s the difference!” Coetzee says Ideco’s Repair Center offers a ‘Fast Track’ option to ensure mission critical equip- ment is given high prior- ity. “Be sure to ask for

the fast track option when booking in any urgent repair.” A two hour warranty

swap-out or repair is available for all prod- ucts sold through Ideco’s official distribution chan- nel and are covered under the standard or extended warranty options. The com- pany keeps sufficient spares and stock on hand to ensure that repairs can be completed as quickly as possible. “As an added level of convenience, customers have access to an easy online tracking option through our web portal that allows them to track repair progress online. Automated reminders are also sent after three

months to ensure devices are not forgotten,” he explains. “Our repair centre still offers re- pairs on discontinuedMorpho access

October 2015