Speech by Ashok Lavasa, ADB Vice President for Private Sector Operations and Public–Private Partnerships, at the signing ceremony of IIFL Home Finance Limited - Supporting Access to Affordable Green Housing for Women Project, 21 February 2022
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of ADB, I am honored to kick-off this signing ceremony for ADB’s loan to IIFL Home Finance Limited in India. Like so many events these days, we have to sign virtually, but I do look forward to witnessing the implementation of this important housing project on the ground in India in the near future.
We are very pleased to be partnering with IIFL Home Finance. This $68 million loan package from ADB’s Private Sector Operations demonstrates how the private sector can take leadership in serving the segments of the population most affected by the pandemic’s economic fallout – the lower income and economically disadvantaged segments, and women. We also applaud the work of a private sector company playing a leading role in providing access to affordable housing, as is the case for IIFL Home Finance.
One of the most important aspects of development that can improve quality of life and access to better economic prospects, is having an affordable home. Millions of people in Asia, however, do not have access to adequate shelter. Of course, as the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, the need to have adequate housing during community lockdowns or to self-isolate and socially distance, has become even more important. We know that in India, the housing deficit is vast, estimated at 18.7 million units in urban areas and 43.7 million units in rural areas. More than 90% of this deficit is in the lower income segment. By working with private sector companies like IIFL Home Finance to bridge the affordable housing gap, we can start to address some of these market gaps.
We celebrate the fact that this is the first financing transaction closed between the housing finance subsidiary of the IIFL Finance Group – and a development finance institution such as ADB. In this case, both institutions share many development objectives. First, of providing greater financial inclusion through access to housing finance for the low-income segments, often for their first home purchase. Second, by promoting gender equality, both in providing access to formal financial services for women borrowers, but also in promoting gender equity internally within the company. And last, that of promoting climate change mitigation and climate resilience throughout the value chain of its business activities. We commend IIFL Housing Finance for its tremendous leadership in all of these development areas and look forward to hearing more about IIFL’s work on financial inclusion, gender, and climate finance during this ceremony as we support them in their pursuit of these shared development goals.
ADB is also excited that this project with IIFL Home Finance allows us the opportunity to offer our clients the support of important and very valued contributions from our co-financing partners and donors and whom we are honored to have with us today. We extend our sincere appreciation and gratitude to both the Governments of the United Kingdom and Canada for your funding support that enables ADB to catalyze important private sector projects in our developing member countries such as the one that we are celebrating today.
Mr. Ratra, CEO of IIFL Home Finance Ltd, and Mr. Jain, Chairman and Founder of the IIFL Finance Group, dignitaries from the Government of Canada and from the Government of the UK, thank you for joining today as we recognize the important work being done by our private sector clients in India. And to my colleagues at ADB and the members of the entire ADB team who worked together to bring forward this project, congratulations on reaching this important milestone. Thank you for making me a part of this occasion and thank you all for joining the signing ceremony today.