​Cardano-Powered DeFi Platform Empowa Takes on Africa’s Housin | Altcoin Holder

​Cardano-Powered DeFi Platform Empowa Takes on Africa’s Housing Crisis

In the face of exorbitant mortgage rates crippling the housing market in Africa, Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has spotlighted the potential of blockchain technology to radically transform the situation.

The exchange has specifically highlighted the innovative efforts of Empowa, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform powered by Cardano (ADA), that aims to tackle the housing affordability crisis in Africa.

Empowa has set an ambitious mission: to enable 1 million African families to become owners of climate-smart homes by 2030. The company is determined to disrupt the current real estate market, which is ridden with high mortgage rates. In Zimbabwe, for instance, the rate stands at an almost prohibitive 45%, according to Empowa. Such high finance costs have perpetuated a vicious cycle of unaffordable housing across the continent.

The Empowa team, in their white paper, have underlined the severity of the issue, stating that low levels of investment, high interest rates, and short finance terms (if finance is even available) have resulted in an extremely high cost of capital. The 2020 Centre for Affordable Housing (CAHF) Annual report states that the mortgage rate in Zambia is 32%, while it’s at least 25% in Guinea, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.