Housing development being compromised * SHC boss

Page 24: Daily Graphic, March 30, 2010.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Managing Director of the State Housing Company (SHC), Mr Mark Nii Akwei Ankrah, says the emergence of slums in urban centres indicate that human development is being compromised.
He said the failure to holistically address the challenges of planning meant that slums would continue to emerge no matter how good and well-intentioned government policies were.
Speaking during a courtesy call on the Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) Mr Ibrahim Awal, in Accra yesterday, Mr Ankrah said the SHC was to be reinvigorated to pursue a social housing scheme that would address the housing needs of Ghanaians.
In line with that, he said, a national housing road show would be organised this year to tour the various regions and climax it with a National Housing Conference to bring all stakeholders on board to streamline housing ownership.
Mr Ankrah said what currently existed in the country was a real estate enterprise, which did not factor in the needs of many Ghanaians.
According to him, home ownership was a gradual process but the present system made it appear that it was a one-stop process.
He said he was leading the SHC to revert to its core business of a social housing scheme provider through which prospective home owners would be assisted to own houses.
He said the company was also re-engineering its existing stock of houses through re-development and building of new ones with affordable high quality materials and to suit the needs of owners.
Mr Ankrah said the era of horizontal buildings in urban centres was over and it was important that vertical development was seen as the way out.
He said the vision of achieving affordable and quality houses would require the use of local materials and planning needs of the beneficiary communities, stressing that it should not be a wholesale package of using only a particular building material for all houses across the country.
He cited for instance that the use of clay and other materials could reduce the cost of pavements in the urban centres instead of cement.
“We are bringing in a lot of innovation and flexibility in the design of housing with the ultimate owner or user in mind,” he said.
Mr Ankrah stressed the need for Ghanaians to de-politicise the housing sector, adopt a collective responsibility and think outside the box to address the housing needs.
He explained that despite the low-key activities of the SHC, the company had been acquiring large tracts of land and would make them available for prospective home owners.
He said the company had set up a Professional Advisory Unit to assist prospective home owners, companies and interested groups in instituting home owning scheme for staff.
Mr Ankrah said the company would depend on the media, particularly the GCGL, to educate the populace on housing.
He also expressed concern about the challenges in house numbering in the country, as local assemblies often provided different house numbers other than what were provided by estate firms to their owners and, thus, created problems for identification and use of housings for business transactions.
Mr Awal pledged the support of the GCGL to partner the SHC to educate the populace.
He noted that housing was key in the socio-economic life of Ghanaians and it was, therefore, important that the populace were not only informed but educated as well on the sector.