Recap 2025

A look back at 2025 and the steps
taken on our journey to unlock the
$1 trillion African affordable housing market

Empowa Annual Report 2025  Achievements and Milestones

As 2025 came to a close, Empowa marked another year of steady progress toward its mission: expanding access to affordable, sustainable housing through financially viable rent-to-own models, supported by digital infrastructure and long-term partnerships. While real-world housing projects take time, 2025 was a year in which many foundational pieces came together, setting the stage for 2026 to be a genuine breakout year. You can watch our video recap or read a summary of some of the key points below.

Strengthening Our Core Markets

Mozambique: From Pilots to Scale

Mozambique remained Empowa’s most advanced and impactful market in 2025, with major milestones achieved through strategic partnerships and on-the-ground delivery.

A landmark collaboration was formalised with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), working jointly to design new financial products that make affordable housing investment viable in a country where roughly 85% of the population cannot access adequate housing. With support from Empowa’s digital tools, the shared objective is to unlock financing for SME housing developers to build climate-resilient, affordable homes delivered via rent-to-own contracts.

As part of this collaboration:

  • Empowa was invited to Maputo in May for in-depth workshops with ILO to explore investment mobilisation and long-term scaling opportunities from 2026 onward.

  • Seed funding was provided to Empowa’s local financial partner to field-test EmpowaPay, strengthening data collection and payment monitoring in real-world conditions.

In parallel, Empowa deepened its partnership with GAPI, Mozambique’s leading development finance institution. Signed in 2025, this partnership underlined a shared commitment to scaling rent-to-own housing using Empowa’s digital infrastructure. GAPI provided its first investment to Casa Real, Empowa’s delivery partner, and is actively using EmpowaPay to monitor performance.

These partnerships directly enabled the long-awaited unlocking of Phase One of the Maraza housing project, a flagship development that will ultimately deliver 25,000 homes. In 2025, Beira’s urban development authority contracted Casa Real to begin construction on the first batch of homes, made possible by rent-to-own contracts that can later be refinanced by GAPI. By year-end, these homes were nearing completion, a tangible milestone after years of groundwork.

Nigeria
First Collateral NFT Sale

2025 was also the year Empowa actively explored expansion into Nigeria. While entering a new market inevitably brought regulatory and operational challenges, meaningful progress was made through partnerships with cooperatives and local housing developers, notably MMF Housing. These efforts focused on providing cooperative members with alternatives to traditional mortgages. Empowa expects its first Nigerian project to go live in early 2026, marking an important new chapter for the platform.

Kenya
Platform, Partnerships, and Tokenisation

 

Kenya emerged as a pivotal market in 2025, particularly from a platform and capital-markets perspective.

Empowa strengthened partnerships with:

  • MRC (Kenya Mortgage Refinance Corporation), exploring how rent-to-own can complement mortgage refinancing

  • Shelter Afrique, a pan-African institution backed by over 40 African governments, opening pathways to large-scale capital deployment

Two new projects were launched with Browncap, accompanied by walkthroughs that allowed the community to see construction progress first-hand.

Most significantly, Empowa completed development of its Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) tokenisation platform by year-end and successfully tokenised its first homes. While public announcements are planned for early 2026, the platform has now moved beyond pilot status and is ready to be actively marketed, unlocking new opportunities for housing finance in Kenya.

Product & Platform Progress

2025 saw major upgrades across Empowa’s digital infrastructure:

  • EmpowaPay v2 launched, enabling in-app rent payments, improving data quality, and strengthening monitoring for developers and financiers.

  • A proprietary Home Ownership Readiness Score was introduced, a credit-like assessment tailored for informal income environments where traditional credit scoring does not exist. This score helps developers select suitable tenants, reduces risk for investors, and improves outcomes across the ecosystem.

  • The Empowa Calculator was rolled out to help developers assess project viability and produce investor-grade financial documentation. This tool has transformed what was previously a fragmented process into a standardised framework suitable for institutional capital and platforms like the NSE.

Community, Liquidity, and Token Economics

Empowa continued to deliver value to its community throughout the year:

  • Liquidity drive rewards were paid out, strengthening the token’s credibility with external investors.

  • The LSPO launched, allowing community members to earn EMP passively while supporting the ecosystem.

  • Two collateral NFT sales closed the year, locking up approximately 1.25 million EMP. Founding Community allocations sold out in minutes, followed by rapid sell-outs in public sales.

Looking ahead, Empowa has scheduled monthly NFT sales throughout 2026 (and likely into 2027), ensuring ongoing opportunities for community members to deploy EMP productively rather than leaving it idle.

NFT reclaiming is now fully automated via smart contracts, allowing early supporters to burn collateral NFTs and reclaim EMP plus bonuses through the platform.

Looking Ahead to 2026

With foundations firmly in place, Empowa enters 2026 with momentum and clarity:

  • Public launch and scaling of the NSE platform

  • Expansion of projects across Kenya and Mozambique, including potential developments outside Beira

  • Launch of the first Nigerian project

  • Relaunch of the Explorer, including conversion of legacy impact rewards into EMP

  • Exploration of tier-two exchange listings, with a strong focus on Cardano-native and Africa-relevant venues

Empowa recognises that real-world housing takes time, but after more than three years of consistent execution, data collection, and partnership-building, the platform is now positioned for meaningful scale.

2025 was a year of delivery, validation, and alignment. With homes nearing completion, platforms live, capital partners engaged, and a deeply supportive community, Empowa believes 2026 will be the year where impact, returns, and scale truly converge.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the journey so far, and here’s to a year of growth, opportunity, and real-world impact ahead.

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