President John Dramani Mahama has unveiled a GH¢3 billion revolving fund to drive a large-scale affordable housing programme targeted at Ghana’s public sector workforce.
He said nurses, teachers, doctors and civil servants deserve safe and dignified housing.
Under the initiative, state-backed developers including the State Housing Company (SHC) and the TDC Limited , as well as private real estate firms, will access credit from the fund to construct residential units in urban centres. Commercial banks will then provide individual mortgages to workers, repayable over 15 to 20 years.
President Mahama explained that the scheme is anchored on a collaborative financing structure involving government, organised labour and commercial banks.
He disclosed this on Saturday at the sod-cutting ceremony for the Green City Housing Project at Dedesua in the Bosomtwi District of the Ashanti Region, describing it as a locally designed response to Ghana’s chronic housing deficit.
He said the initiative was deliberately structured to avoid foreign-currency exposure that had previously driven up mortgage costs for homeowners.
“This is a Ghanaian solution designed for our Ghanaian reality,” he said.
The Green City Project, being undertaken by the State Housing Company Limited, sits on 200 acres of land released by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. It is expected to deliver more than 1,000 housing units.
The development is designed as an integrated community, featuring apartments, detached and semi-detached houses, schools, health facilities, recreational areas and commercial spaces.
President Mahama announced that the houses would be priced in cedis rather than dollars.
“Let me also announce that these houses are going to be indexed in cedis, not dollars,” he said. “If you take a mortgage on the house, it will be in cedis and not in dollars. This will address the problem where depreciation of the cedi previously increased mortgage costs.”
He added that recent improvements in macroeconomic stability had made the cedi-denominated approach more viable than in previous years.
He cautioned that failure to act urgently and at scale would worsen the country’s housing deficit.
“If we do not act urgently and at scale, tomorrow’s housing crisis will far exceed what we are experiencing today,” he warned.
To reduce the final cost of housing units, the President announced that government would absorb the cost of internal roads and drainage infrastructure under the “Big Push” programme.
“If we do not do that, developers will add those costs to the houses, making them more expensive,” he explained.
He described the Dedesua project as a blueprint for future housing developments nationwide, with a focus on low- and middle-income earners.
He also assured Ghanaians in the diaspora that the Green City homes would be free from litigation and land disputes, urging them to invest in the scheme.
President Mahama further noted that the project would generate employment for contractors, artisans, engineers, suppliers and young people, while stimulating economic activity in the area.
The Minister of Works, Housing and Water Resources, Kenneth Gilbert Adjei, described the project as a long-term national investment rather than a politically driven initiative.
“This is not about building for the next electoral cycle. It is about building for generations yet unborn,” he said.
He stressed that success would not be measured only by the number of housing units delivered, but also by the lives transformed and opportunities created.
He added that the project had been designed to respond to global environmental and climate challenges, warning that projections suggest many Ghanaians could face extreme heat conditions in the future.
He also paid tribute to the Asantehene for releasing the land, describing his support as inspirational, and commended the President for prioritising housing as a key pillar of national development.
Dasebre Osei Bonsu III, Mampong Paramount Chief, who represented the Asantehene at the ceremony, pledged the full support of traditional authorities for the project.
He cautioned against any actions that could undermine its implementation and warned specifically against encroachment on the land.
FROM KINGSLEY E. HOPE, KUMASI
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