The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Samuel Atta-Akyea, has backed plans to set up a national housing fund in Ghana to offer decent and reasonable mortgages, slum upgrading and support for small-scale local building material manufacturers.
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The National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration opened a National Housing Policy in 2015, with a proposal to set up a national housing fund in Ghana; and Mr. Atta-Kyea, acting in response to inquiries from Parliament’s Appointments Committee, said he was in support of the proposal.
He said the founding of such a fund could be pulled to offer long-term financing for both financiers in the sector and home buyers.
Mr. Atta-Akyea grumbled about the lack of a devoted bank in the nation to support the housing desires of the population.
He gave a reassurance that he would guarantee that the housing fund was founded and also implied the prospect of pulling the seed finances of the housing fund to set up a bank for the housing sector.
The housing minister hopes that this will bring in professionalism into the running of the fund.
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As part of his plan to tackle with the housing deficit in the nation, he said he would promote various streams of mortgage financing proposals to offer long-term financing to the buyers.
He said the housing shortage, which presently stood at 1.7 million housing units, was a worry to the government.
Mr. Atta-Akyea said the problems in land acquisition and high prices of building materials were the blight of the housing sector.
Mr. Atta-Akyea also praised the efforts of the preceding government at finishing some of the affordable housing projects began under the former Kufuor administration.
He said he would, consequently, make a case before Cabinet for the conclusion of the residual affordable housing units before starting any new housing projects.
He mentioned the present fiscal constraint as a challenge to the conclusion of the residual projects, but gave the pledge that he would utilize the private sector as a vehicle to attain his goals for the sector.
