Ghana currently has a social housing problem, with a deficit of 1.7 million units.
The Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alhaji Collins Dauda, said this when a delegation from the Douja Promotion Group (DPG), a Morocco-based estate developing company, called on him in Accra on Thursday.
He stated that spreading it over a 10-year period, a minimum of 170,000 housing units would have to be built annually.
He acknowledged that such problems required public-private partnership to address, since the government alone could not address that deficit and, therefore, any initiative from private entities to complement the government’s effort towards addressing the housing deficit was welcome.
“The Government alone cannot do this obviously,” he added.
Moroccan company to partner Government
The delegation, led by the Director General of the DPG, Mr Saad Sefrioui, expressed the interest to partner the government in addressing the social housing deficit by providing 5,000 social housing units within two years.
To that effect, they presented to the minister a draft memorandum of understanding to be studied and, if approved, signed by both parties to facilitate the commencement of the project.
They promised to not import cement for the project but would rather set up a cement factory locally to produce cement for the project.
The delegation, which was hopeful of starting the project immediately, asked the ministry to facilitate the acquisition of land for the project.
They invited the sector minister to inspect similar works the company was executing elsewhere.
Minister’s Response
Alhaji Dauda lauded the DPG initiative and promised to work on the draft memorandum of understanding and shape it to meet the local requirements.
He expressed the wish that the project would start immediately.