(Updates with housing deficit detail third paragraph.)

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Kenya Commercial Bank Ltd., the nation’s biggest lender by branches, said it will provide more than $31 million to finance four housing projects planned by Tanzania’s National Housing Corp.

Kenya Commercial Bank plans to fund a total of 10 of the corporation’s projects, Mortgages Director Joram Kiarie told reporters in Nairobi today.

The state-run National Housing Corp. owns most of the prime residential and commercial land in Tanzania, Kiarie said. The housing deficit in east Africa’s second-biggest economy is estimated at three million units and growing at a rate of 200,000 units a year. It is estimated that only 1 percent of new houses are funded through mortgages, according to the corporation’s strategic plan, which runs until 2015.

--Editors: Ana Monteiro, Louis Meixler

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Ombok in Nairobi at eombok@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net