Accra, Sept. 17, GNA - A three-day training programme to streamline ways and measures for the development and standardization of the primary mortgage market in Ghana opened in Accra on Monday.

Mr. Jacques Raiche, International Finance Corporation (IFC) Programme Manager of Ghana Primary Mortgage Market Initiative (GPMMI), said the programme would provide advanced knowledge, insight and working skills which were critical to housing practitioners. "In the emerging world of information and knowledge sharing, education and training become vital necessities for any institution to function optimally," he said.

The training is part of African Union for Housing Finance's (AUFH) Annual General Meeting and Conference being organised by the Ghana Housing Finance Association (GHFA), with sponsorship from HFC Bank and IFC, among other local and international agencies. About 150 delegates and resource persons from about 15 countries in Africa and five outside the continent are attending the Conference on the theme: "The Future of Sustainable Housing Finance System Towards Affordable Housing and Infrastructure."

Speaking on the topic: "Introduction of Housing Finance Training Programme", Mr. Raiche said favourable developments at the market place were facilitating origination of housing loans in the primary markets. "The inflation rate has reduced substantially to be soon a single digit number and interest rates have started to fall allowing accessibility to housing finance," he said.

Mr Raiche said banks were looking for alternative lending opportunities and developing assets based consumer products. "Housing finance provides an attractive opportunity as both profit margins and recovery rates on average are as good if not higher than project and corporate lending.

"On the demand side, marketing efforts by financial institutions to offer mortgage products combined by efforts of the Ghana Real Estate Development Association to offer accessible housing are creating awareness amongst the general public for home ownership through housing finance," he said.

Mr Raiche said IFC, through a funding of Swiss Economic Affairs (SECO), had launched a programme named Ghana Primary Mortgage Market Initiative with three objectives. These are improving the legal, tax and regulatory framework for mortgage finance, launch of modern mortgage lending operations within participatory primary lending organisations and developing and strengthening institutions and processes that support the Ghanaian mortgage market.

He said the reality that housing finance needed high calibre professionals and specialists who had the capacity to address the many challenges that affected housing delivery had become something that needed to be embraced.

"This implies that there is a lot that need to be done and the success towards this depends on the collaboration with others and the partnership between the public and the private sector." Mr Asare Akuffo, Managing Director, HFC Bank, said housing was a market that needed to be explored and Africa was now on the verge of taking advantage of that market.

"Africa is now beginning to do the right thing and it is the market system that drives the economy," he said. Three years ago HFC was the only institution doing mortgage financing, but now there are about 12 institutions. 17 Sept. 07