Accra, July 19, GNA 96 A new mortgage finance institution has received its licence from the Bank of Ghana to operate in Ghana, according to a statement issued in Accra on Wednesday. Ghana Home Loans Limited, according to the statement, was promoted and financed by local entrepreneurs and international financial institutions.

Amongst the financial institutions are Standard Bank of South Africa (the parent company of Stanbic Ghana); FMO, the development finance institution of the Netherlands, and GHL-USA Investment Partners LLC of the United States.

The statement said Ghana Home Loans had entered into a commitment with OPIC, a leading US financial Institution, to provide them with a 30 million-dollars long-term facility to originate residential mortgage loans in Ghana.

=93Ghana Home Loans will provide mortgages to enable individuals or couples to buy a house;, invest in a house or release some cash from their existing homes or simply switch from an existing lender to benefit from Ghana Home Loans' competitively priced mortgage and superior quality of service,=94 it said.

The new company said it had entered the business to address the shortage of housing finance in the country.

There is a huge deficit of housing stock in the country making it one of the most crucial demands of the population. Ghana Home Loans joins Home Finance Company on the domestic mortgage market.