GHANA AIMS TO BUILD 8 MILLION HOUSES BY 2050

ABOUT eight million houses have
been projected to be built in the country by 2050, to accommodate the growing
population and clear the existing housing deficit, pegged at two million units.

By 2030, it is envisaged that
300,000 houses would be built annually, according to the Ghana Infrastructure
Plan (GIP), a companion document of the country’s 40-year long-term national
development plan.

Charles Boakye, team lead for the
GIP and an engineer of the Institute for Infrastructure Development gave
highlights of the plan at the 2nd National Development Forum in Accra on
Thursday.

The GIP aims to chart a new
vision and strategic direction for Ghana’s infrastructure in a coordinated and
integrated manner, and develop a financing plan for implementation to attain a
high-income status within 40 years.

Under the Human Settlements and
Housing, Mr Boakye said light and informal industrial estates such as Kokompe
in Accra and Suame in Kumasi would be re-designed and upgraded to support
industrial growth.

According to him, mining towns in
the country such as Obuasi, Konongo and Tarkwa would also be redesigned and
transformed into sustainable human settlements.

“Slums and dilapidated
settlements will be phased out progressively under the new “Making slums
history” programme, towards building sustainable, attractive and secure
cities,” he said.

He highlighted similar boost for
health, education, tourism, water and sanitation, aviation, maritime and energy
sectors to address existing challenges and others that would rear their heads
due to the increasing population.

Ten other major infrastructure
frameworks listed in the plan include energy, transport, water, human
settlements and housing, social, civic and commercial and resource mobilisation
and financing plan.

Others are human resource and
skills planning, climate resilience, disaster risk reduction and environmental
sustainability, construction industry development, results framework and ICT
infrastructure.

“The good news is that to
build our infrastructure, we have all the materials, we get cement from
limestone, we get bitumen from oil, plastics from gas, and steel from iron
ore… what we need to do is to add value to our resources. Without that we
cannot finance the plan,” he said.

Prof. Kwasi Kwafo Adarkwa, former
Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, said
the plan was laudable but needed sustainable finance and implementation plan to
execute it.

Participants called for strong political will to see the plan through.https://allafrica.com/stories/201907010118.html