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Willing to support local and regional development, the Johannesburg agency now funds more than thirty projects and has increased its activity by four between 2004 and 2008 to meet the financing needs of projects for the region's development. Photo © Coda
News
AFD celebrates its 70th anniversary
The Johannesburg local office celebrated the 70th anniversary of AFD on Monday December 5th, in the presence of Mr Dov Zerah, Managing Director of AFD, Mr Jean-Yves Grosclaude, Operations Director of AFD, and Mr Jacques Lapouge, Ambassador of France in South Africa.
The celebration gathered AFD’s main partners and the French community of Johannesburg in Liliesleaf farm, the secret Headquarters of the ANC during the struggle against apartheid.
AFD, South Africa and COP 17
AFD and Nasho organize a major conference on social housing
In October 2011, AFD and NASHO, the National Association of Social Housing Organisations, co-hosted a major 2 days conference on 'Financing for Social Housing: Investing in Urban Regeneration'. The conference was attended by NASHO members as well as private sector landlords, municipal and provincial representatives, and financing organisations. French and Brazilian experts brought an international perspective to the numerous presentations, panel and group discussions.
The main output of the conference will be a report highlighting the areas of collaboration and future partnership between all of these stakeholders.
Working Paper n° 117 | Student Loans: Liquidity Constraint and Higher Education in South Africa
Empirical evidence that access to higher education is constrained by credit availability is limited and usually indirect. This paper provides direct evidence by comparing university enrollment rates of potential South African students, depending on whether or not they get a loan to cover their university fees, in a context where such fees are high. We use matched individual data from a credit institution (Eduloan) and from the Department of Education. Using a regression-discontinuity design based on the fact that loans are granted according to a credit score threshold, we can estimate the causal impact of loan obtainment. We find that the credit constraint is substantial, as it reduces the enrollment rate into higher education by more than 20 percentage points in a population of student loan applicants.

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