By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA
Accra, Aug. 27, GNA – Vice President Dr
Mahamudu Bawumia would on Wednesday, August 28, perform a groundbreaking ceremony
for construction works to begin on the United Nations Office of Project
Services (UNOPS) at the Amasaman District One Site in the Ga West municipality.
The housing project is worth five billion
dollars and will see the construction of 100,000 affordable houses, which falls
under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
It will be implemented by the UNOPS, in
partnership with the Sustainable Housing Solutions (SHS), aimed at reducing the
over two million housing deficit in Ghana.
The UNOPS recently rolled out a US$15
billion project to construct affordable houses in some countries in Africa,
Asia and the Caribbean.
Ghana and Kenya are the beneficiary
countries from Africa while India will also benefit from the project in Asia.
The partnership will witness UNOPS and SHS
delivering more than 260,000 high-quality affordable homes across the selected
countries.
The project will provide thousands of job
opportunities for local communities and construction of renewable energy
sources.
Ghana signed the agreement for the housing
project in September 2018 in New York, US, at the sidelines of the UN General
Assembly, which was witnessed by President Akufo-Addo.
The new partnership will also explore new
opportunities in the renewable market, with UNOPS expected to work with
MYRA-SHS Energy, a subsidiary of SHS, which focuses on investments in renewable
energy projects and associated infrastructure.
The project forms part of the latest step in
UNOPS’ Social Impact Investing Initiative aimed at attracting financing from
the private sector to develop projects in emerging markets.
The technology is earthquake and hurricane
resistant and constituent with the utilization of renewable energy and
non-toxic insect-repellent properties.
The concept aims at providing a ‘turn-key
solution’ to reduce the current shortfall of tens of millions of decent
dwellings across the globe.
GNA
