Players in Ghana’s architecture sector are pushing for a clear policy on housing in Ghana to make it truly affordable and available.
Already, Ghana lacks a comprehensive housing programme, and this has been blamed on the lack of a financial strategy for implementation of projects in the sector.
The definition of affordable housing has been and still continues to be a controversial issue in Ghana. Access to decent and adequate housing is often considered as a basic human right. However, low-income households face difficulties in accessing not only affordable housing solutions but also housing of good quality.
In Ghana, both the informal and formal sector’s supply of housing continues to be inadequate to meet the increasing demand. This has resulted in acute and persistent housing deficits — a situation that presents a complex mix of both challenges and opportunities.
Though successive governments have developed housing programmes with the aim of addressing affordable housing in Ghana, the end products have been taken over by the middle to high income groups.
Speaking to Citi Business News on the sidelines of the Inauguration and swearing-in of the new Council for the Ghana Institute of Architects, Honorary Secretary of the Ghana Institute of Architects, Augustus Richardson, said government must go back to the drawing board and also engage more with the right institutions within the housing industry to achieve its housing goals.
“I think that government makes the necessary efforts to address the issue of housing which is a huge problem in the country. it is generally important for us to start looking at it the proper way. We don’t have a national policy that has been thought through carefully on how to develop our country. The development is on and off. it is done on a adhoc basis. I think that the approach is to engage the right institutions to look at how to solve the problem of housing,” he said.
Currently, Ghana’s housing deficit stands at 2 million units, but industry players believe the deficit could be more as the country’s population increases.
By this, government would have to build 190,000 to 200,000 units of houses each year for the next 10 years to bridge the gap.
This is expected to cost around US$3.4 billion for the 200,000 units.