Minister of Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea, has disclosed that the ministry will embark on the construction of 200,000 housing units across the 10 regions of the country, in 2019.
He said drastic efforts were needed to address Ghana’s 1.7 million/annum housing deficit. The housing sector, Mr Akyea, Member of Parliament for the Abuakwa South Constituency, said was capital intensive and that the government of Ghana’s sources would not be able to undertake such a venture and there was the need to involve the private sector.
The challenge, however, he acknowledged was that the private capital would swell the national debt, and the argument on debt sustainability would have been on the front burner of national discourse “but we need to intervene.”
He said “if this nation is afraid to spend to give our people housing, a time is going to come that we will be so challenged. We wouldn’t know what to do about where our people will sleep.” He indicated “So (next) year, in a very powerful social intervention, we will attempt 200,000 housing units which will be in all regional capitals”.
Akyea said there was the necessity to create a mortgage regime for Ghana because a lot of people were interested in getting houses of their own. “That is the paradigm shift President Akufo-Addo is bringing but we are not going to use the commercial rate of borrowing when we are dealing in housing,” he explained.
Akyea said all housing projects left unattended since former President Kufuor’s era through Atta Mills and John Mahama, would be completed as funds have been provided in the 2019 budget. He stressed that “we are ready to find the requisite private money to complete these housing projects for the benefit of our people.”
Ghana, he said, was in an economic doldrums when the NPP took over, but after being in office for two years, the stage was set for the creation of jobs and economic expansion. The budget, Akyea said, did not only address local issues, but encompasses the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 international goals, earmarked to speed up the development of the world.
