Head of legal services and company secretary | Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company
Elisha Nyikuli
Head of legal services and company secretary | Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company
What are the most significant cases and transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?
One of KMRC’s key objectives is to influence policy towards a social good. It was gratifying to lead a multi-functional team in 2023 in drafting a policy proposal to the National Treasury that ended up being adopted into a legislative amendment to the country’s Income Tax Act that allowed borrowers from credit and savings unions to be included in the bracket that permits mortgage interest relief on their payslips. This translates to increased net income for that category of borrowers.
Which recent political, economic or regulatory changes have impacted your work the most in recent years?
A recent law in Kenya called the Affordable Housing Act 2024, if well implemented, promises to revolutionise how the government will fund its affordable housing agenda. There are significant synergies to be explored between KMRC’s operating environment and its funding needs, taking into account prevailing legal obligations that KMRC owes from its existing contracts with funders. It is therefore exciting to be at the forefront of exploring the legitimate mechanism through which KMRC can impact both the supply and the demand sides of the housing industry by tapping into the Affordable Housing Fund created under the new law.
Are there any causes, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about?
Yes. I am extremely passionate about men’s mental wellness. In a society where heavy expectation on the boy child is leading the male species to levels of depression and desperation not seen before, I am actively involved in my various social networks in bringing together men to discuss their mental, social and general all-rounded well-being.
Affordable housing is a key pillar in the any government’s social agenda. KMRC is a special purpose mortgage liquidity facility that was set up as one of the key implementing agencies of Kenya’s Affordable Housing Finance Program, an initiative of the World Bank that began under the 2018 Government of Kenya’s Big 4 agenda. This agenda was taken up under the succeeding government’s Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda. KMRC serves primary mortgage lenders in Kenya, namely commercial banks and savings and credit unions. It does so by lending them cheap, fixed-rate and long-term funding obtained from development finance institutions (the World Banks and the African Development Bank) to enable them utilise that funding instead of their short-term deposits for the purpose of on lending to their customers to achieve affordable housing.
Elisha is responsible for overseeing and managing all legal issues and risks faced by KMRC, including but not limited to: drafting, review and management of contracts; perfection of securities; providing legal advisory on statutory and regulatory developments and requirements; and providing guidance on the company’s governing structures. He also provides corporate governance support to the KMRC Board of Directors by designing, implementing and managing the board’s annual workplan and attending to all related documentation and action items. He further plays a key role as a liaison between the company and its shareholders, partners and other stakeholders on various contractual, regulatory or policy obligations.