​Cameroon has just recorded a major victory during the 45th Annual General Meeting – AGM of Shelter Afrique in Rabat, Morocco, with the election of Minister Célestine Ketcha Courtès to the prestigious position of Board Director representing the countries of Central Africa.

Facing a competing bid from the Gabonese Minister in charge of urban planning, Cameroon’s Minister of Housing and Urban Development widely won the trust and support of her peers. To champion this candidacy, the Minister mandated a delegation led by Technical Advisor No. 2 and the Head of the Legal Affairs Division.

​By electing her, the Shelter Afrique AGM recognizes the exceptional leadership of Mrs. Ketcha Courtès. It was during the Yaounde AGM, which she chaired in 2021, that the profound reform of Shelter Afrique was set in motion. The Rabat AGM marks the ultimate culmination of this reform with the official formalization of the birth certificate of the Shelter Afrique Development Bank.

With this historic transformation, alongside a new governance structure and a newly constituted Board of Directors, Shelter Afrique is now in a much stronger position to fulfill the mandate entrusted to it by African Heads of State in 1981: to support African nations in their efforts to reduce precarious housing and bridge the massive affordable and decent housing deficit, currently estimated at 53 million units.

​As a woman of vision, the Minister’s deep wealth of experience will be a tremendous asset in achieving the new ambition of this pan-African organization. This ambition focuses on fully playing its part in the implementation of urban agendas to build sustainable, smart, resilient, and inclusive African cities.

​The selection of Cameroon, through the brilliant election of Mrs. Célestine Ketcha Courtès, stands as further proof of the growing influence and success of Cameroonian diplomacy, driven under the leadership of the President of the Republic, His Excellency Paul Biya.