PRESIDENT NANA Akufo-Addo has decried an acute shortage of user-friendly and decent housing for people in middle and low-income brackets in Ghana.
Mr. Akufo-Addo made this known whilst delivering his third State of the Nation Address on Thursday in Accra on the floor of Parliament.
According to him, the housing deficit “is a long-standing problem that gets worse with each passing day.”
He has therefore stated that it is time to tackle the issue and find a resolution.
The President observed that “we are starting with the completion of the many abandoned projects dotted around the country.”
He disclosed that a consortium of local banks has raised $ 51 million to fund the completion of the social housing units started by the Kufuor administration in 2006 at Koforidua, Tamale and Ho.
Ghana housing deficit according to official statistics stands at 1.7 million and is projected to rise to about 2.2 million in the next few years.
Commenting on the number of interventions being made to address the housing crisis, the President said “the Saglemi Housing Project, started under the last NDC government, is also high on our list of priorities this year. The 5,000 units it offers would boost our housing numbers.”
He added that “we are, therefore, establishing the value for money issues surrounding the project in order to reconcile the number of houses built with the schedule of payments made, and accelerate delivery.
Mr. Akufo-Addo reiterated that “the 2019 budget made provision for the construction of two hundred thousand (200,000) housing units, and a database of local and foreign developers has been created to help make this policy a reality.”
BY Melvin Tarlue