Affordable houses to be completed with 'jet speed' – Atta Akyea

Minister for Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea, has said he is committed to ensuring immediate completion of “affordable housing projects started by previous governments, as soon as financing is available.

“By the next three months, we would have done considerable work. Right now, we have the bills of quantities and we are just trying to secure the monies from private sources so we complete them,” he told the B&FT.

“Immediately we get the monies ready, we are going to move at a jet speed to have them completed. Within three months, you will see serious work going on with these uncompleted houses.”

He also added that if the project is properly monitored, by Christmas, the houses, which are to the credit of former Presidents Kufuor and Mahama, would be ready for use, before the Akufo-Addo administration rolls out its own housing projects.

Reports indicate there are some 4,720 uncompleted affordable housing units at project sites in Saglemi, Nungua Borteyman and Kpone in the Greater Accra Region; Asokore-Mampong in the Ashanti Region; Koforidua in the Eastern Region; Wa in the Upper West Region and Tamale in the Northern Region,

These are part of the Affordable Housing programme former President Kufour rolled out in 2005 to provide housing for public sector workers.

Former President Mahama also cut sod in 2013 for the construction of some 5000 affordable housing units but could not complete them all. In June, 2016, he inaugurated 1,500 housing units at Ningo in the Greater Accra Region, which he said was the first phase of the project and said others were under construction.

Government to purchase building materials

The minister said the projects delayed because monies handed over to contractors for building materials were not strictly applied for that purpose.

“That is why we have taken this decision strongly; that we don’t put monies in anybody’s hands. Nobody is going to use government monies to look after children schooling abroad or whatever it is. If it is iron rods, we buy it; you cannot eat it; it has to be applied to the project and if we go this way, we would be able to finish all the uncompleted houses in good time,” he said.

“All that the contractor is entitled to is the cost of labour and the rest of it and their profit margins as defined by the contract.”

The concept of affordable housing, which was introduced in 2005 by then New Patriotic Party(NPP) government, was part of interventions for the housing sector aimed at providing accommodation for the low middle-income earners who were mostly government employees.

The New Democratic Congress (NDC) also came into power to continue with its own version of affordable housing, but 11 years on, the scheme has failed to target the appropriate segments of the market and the housing deficit in the country continues to increase.

Ghana has an acute housing shortage, with the current deficit estimated to be about 1.7m housing units, and is expected to hit 2.4million by 2026, if such recommendation by experts and housing developers are not implemented.

Various sources estimate that Ghana’s population could reach 32.2million people by 2020, with about 57percent living in urban communities.