Govt Partners Moroccan Company To Construct Houses

The government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Douja Promotion Group (DPG) of Morocco for the construction of 10,000 social housing units.

The houses are to be built within 10 years and is in line with efforts to address Ghana’s current social housing problem, which is in deficit of 1.7 million units.

Signing ceremony

The Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing, Alhaji Collins Dauda, signed the MoU for the government, while the Director General of the DPG, Mr Saad Sefrioui, initialled for his company.

In his remarks, Alhaji Dauda conceded that the government alone could not address the housing deficits of the country and, therefore, required partnerships with firms such as DPG.

He explained that if the government alone had to carry the burden, it would mean providing a minimum of 170,000 housing units annually for a 10-year period, which was not feasible.

For his part, Mr Sefrioui said although the company had earlier planned providing 5,000 social houses, the minister advocated for 10,000 which they had agreed to.

He said the date of commencement and all other information about the project would be communicated soon.

Background

A 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 not to 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.