A comprehensive new National Housing Policy advanced for implementation will ultimately see government take a backstage and encourage private sector developers to play decisive roles, Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Samuel Yaw Edusei has said.

Available data currently quotes the housing deficit in Ghana at 1.7 million, a reason Mr. Edusei said, calls for a comprehensive policy to address the socio-economic challenge facing the sector.

“The main goal of the policy is to provide adequate, decent, and affordable housing that is accessible to satisfy the needs of all people living in Ghana”.

Mr. Edusei said this when addressing participants at the Water Africa and West Africa Building & Construction Exhibition and Seminars 2015, organized by ACE Event at the Accra International Conference Center.

The Deputy Minister says the enhanced Policy is a composition of previous policies, programs, projects as well as reports and position papers on housing in Ghana woven into a simple comprehensive document that will guide action on the reduction of Ghana’s housing deficit.

According to him, the provision of a decent, adequate, and affordable housing is one of the fundamentals in dealing with urban poverty.