More firms show interest in government housing project

The government says it has received proposals from private sector companies that wish to deliver thousands of housing units for the low to middle-income segment of the population.

A Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Dr Mustapha Ahmed, who disclosed this to a section of the press in Accra Wednesday, said the proposals included that of Agu Resources, which is proposing to deliver 10,000 housing units.

Other proposals which the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing is currently studying include those from the Ghana Armed Forces to deliver housing units for its personnel and the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), with some companies proposing to deliver up to 150,000 units within a time frame.

“So we have opened up the sector for the private sector to participate in delivering housing with government support. But there is a criteria for them to meet to receive our support until they prove us wrong,” Dr Ahmed said at a joint press conference organised by the government to introduce Shelter Afrique to the Ghanaian public.

“We have not exhausted the opportunities. It is only one company that has come and even that they are failing to live up to expectation,” the deputy minister said.

He said Ghana’s membership of Shelter Afrique, which can finance housing projects in various categories to the tune of $100 million, was timely, as a study had put the country’s housing deficit at 1.5 million housing units.

The report, he said, also pointed out that financing in the sector was abysmally low, accounting for the widening deficit, hence the need for the government to partner the private sector to deliver houses meant for both the middle income and social houses to make them affordable to a large segment of the population.

“Having recognised the key role of Shelter Afrique in Africa, we needed to bring it on board in a way that our membership will give us a seat on the board, so that we can also influence decisions,” Dr Ahmed explained.

Ghana is the third largest sovereign country shareholder of the pan-African housing finance institution, after Kenya and Nigeria, holding 8.4 per cent of the shares. With the approval of Parliament, it paid $10 million last year to become the 43rd member of the Kenya-based housing finance company.

As a reward, Shelter Afrique signed its first credit financing agreement of $5 million with the Ghana Home Loans for it to deliver houses and mortgages to the middle class.

The Managing Director of Shelter Afrique said besides supporting the private sector with long-term financing, it would also work with the government to design public-private partnership schemes in the housing sector to deliver affordable social houses and houses for the middle class.

Mr Ba said Shelter Afrique, which had been operating on the African market since 1982, was committed to the Ghanaian market and ready to go beyond its country limit of $100 million a year to bring in other syndicated financing, depending on the project design.

The Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Enoch Cobinah, reiterated that the government was using its membership of Shelter Afrique to both grow the private real estate sector and tap its expertise to develop appropriate policies.