Response Strategies Adopted by Financial Institutions in the Mortgage Industry to the Requirements Set Out in the Housing and Urbanization Section of Kenya’s Vision 2030

Abstract

The Government of Kenya (2007) launched the country’s vision “Kenya Vision 2030 –A Globally Competitive and Prosperous Kenya.” Kenya’s vision 2030 is the long-term development blueprint for the country motivated by a collective aspiration for a better society by the year 2030. The aim of Kenya Vision 2030 is to create a “globally competitive and prosperous country with a high quality of life by 2030”. The social pillar, which this paper is based on, seeks to create a just cohesive and equitable social development in a clean and secure environment by investing in the people of Kenya. For the country to achieve the intended goals for the year 2030, close partnerships and collaboration efforts will have to be fostered between the Government and the private sector, civil societies and all other relevant stakeholders in Kenya’s economy. This perspective created by the government through the vision 2030 has in turn fashioned the need for organisations to re-look their strategies. This study, therefore, aimed at investigating what financial institutions in the mortgage industry have done, are doing or are planning to do in order to align themselves to the objectives set out in Kenya Vision 2030. For this study, the target population comprised of the financial institutions with a mortgage portfolio of over one billion. The study mainly used primary data, which was collected using a questionnaire that was administered either personally or via a telephone interview. The data obtained strived to explain the findings on the research problem and is presented in tabular form, percentages and uses descriptive statistics. Findings from the research reveal that a very small percentage of the firms investigated are actually doing something to ensure they are catering to the needs of vision 2030, and those organizations that are indeed doing something towards the set objectives are yet to accrue any real benefits to the business. Several issues have also been noted to be the reasons why the alignment of the vision’s objectives within the financial institutions still remains a challenge. Organizations should therefore embrace vision 2030’s proposed footprint as Kenya as a country has a lot of potential in the area of housing as currently there are only 13,803 mortgage loans out of a population of 30 million. This presents numerous opportunities for financial institutions engaging in the housing industry.