Mr. Samuel Amegayibor
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY of Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), Samuel Amegayibor, has expressed optimism that government will prioritize housing projects in the country during its second term.
According to him, there was a commercial contract between government and industry players to provide 20,000 housing units annually for the next 20 years.
Noting that the contract has reached an advanced stage; he made reference to a challenge thrown to GREDA by President Akufo-Addo in May 2019, to provide at least 20,000 housing units per annum to help reduce the growing housing deficit, estimated to be about two million housing units.
Mr. Amegayibor, who made this known in an interview with Joy Business, said, “Late last year, we got a response that the matter (construction of housing units) has been limited to the sector minister and so we were engaged at the ministry and we began discussions.”
“And I am happy to say that that discussion led to signing a commercial contract. And we hope that His Excellency’s new term, as early as possible, will offer us a grounding on which to build on,” he emphasized.
“So we are not going to go back to the old processes of going back and forth. We have gotten to a point where a commercial contract has been signed and we can build on that,” he noted.
At a meeting with GREDA executives at the Jubilee House, President Akufo-Addo endorsed the construction of 20,000 units per annum, owing to the current deficit of two million housing units, even though the executives had initially called for incentives to facilitate the construction of 5,000 affordable housing units.