Ghana has announced plans to commence upgrading works on Nima and Maamobi slums in Ayawaso East municipality before the close of the year. Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Samuel Atta Akyea revealed the reports and said that feasibility studies on the project have been submitted and submitted to the cabinet for approval.
“The whole engineering and what the developers want to do will be presented to the next cabinet for consideration and immediately they give us the green light, we will just bring in the developers and then we will start,” said the housing minister.
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Nima and Maamobi Slum upgrading project Â
The Minister also affirmed that his ministry was collaborating with the Ministries of Lands and Natural Resources, Inner City and Zongo Development to make the two communities a world-class residential enclave close to the Jubilee House which was also the seat of government without dislodging the residents.
“The Nima people have their own homes and we are aware, we are not going to dislodge them, but what we are going to do is to build executive flats and housing units for them to move into it free of charge,” said Mr Samuel.
“The transformation of approximately 1,039 acres of prime land, which Nima and Maamobi occupy, will give meaning and beauty to the President’s vision of Inner City and Zongo Development,” he added.
Ghana, like many other countries in the developing world, has serious housing challenges. Growing incidence of slum development in the country is according to Mr Samuel as a result of rural-urban migration, limited supply of land, and regulatory frameworks that were at best, indifferent and hostile to the needs of the poor.
He said the country’s housing deficit was currently assessed as well over two million and whereas the annual housing requirement was about 250,000 units, supply figures were about 45,000 units per annum.
Mr Atta Akyea said it was in this light that government was embarking on a housing programme aimed at facilitating the construction of 250,000 housing units yearly over the next eight years, through Public Private Partnership (PPP).
“The Government has identified housing as a critical sector of the economy for reducing poverty and guaranteeing social stability and national security,” said Mr Samuel.
The fund would create for the first time in the financial space a credible mortgage regime in the country to enable majority of the people especially workers have their own housing bonds, grants, insurance companies, primary reserve of the central bank, treasury single account and tax incentives.
