FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, February 14, 2002

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Lawrence Spinelli (202) 336-8690
Timothy Harwood (202) 336-8744

OPIC DISCUSSES MORTGAGE PROJECTS WITH SOUTH AFRICAN HOUSING MINISTER

South African Minister of Housing Sankie D. Mthembi-Mahanyele and OPIC Executive Vice President Ross Connelly.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ross Connelly, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), met with South Africa’s housing minister to discuss potential projects by which OPIC could support the development of a secondary mortgage market in that country.

“South Africa, with its highly-developed financial infrastructure and successful housing construction program, is a logical place for OPIC involvement, and that of American private sector housing expertise,” Connelly told South African Minister of Housing Sankie D. Mthembi-Mahanyele. “OPIC will look for an opportunity to support projects that will institutionalize a secondary mortgage market in South Africa that in turn could form a solid foundation for further economic development.”

Connelly said South African projects would be modeled after recent OPIC housing projects in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, in which OPIC provided loans or political risk insurance to third-party lenders, which in turn purchased mortgage loans originated by local commercial banks. By helping South Africa develop a reliable record of mortgage loan payments and defaults-and-recoveries, which in turn will attract future investors, OPIC would apply a successful U.S. housing finance model to stimulate the creation of a primary and secondary mortgage loan market in the country, and thereby help meet the demand for low- and middle-income housing in South Africa.

Connelly also said OPIC would prioritize housing development in Africa on the forthcoming trip to the continent by OPIC President and CEO Dr. Peter Watson and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner, scheduled for April.

OPIC's political risk insurance and financing help U.S. businesses of all sizes invest in 140 emerging markets and developing nations worldwide. Over the agency's 30-year history, OPIC has supported $138 billion worth of investments that have helped developing countries to generate over $10 billion in host-government revenues and create nearly 668,000 host-country jobs. OPIC projects have also generated $63.6 billion in U.S. exports and create nearly 250,000 American jobs.