The Chief Executive Officer of the Private Enterprise Federation, Nana Osei-Bonsu has called for investments into the clay brick industry to promote affordable housing and roads.

Nana Osei-Bonsu advised that since clay exists in almost every region in Ghana, this makes it a viable business worth exploring.

He said the source of raw material for clay bricks is a gift from nature that has not been extensively explored in Ghana.

Speaking at an investment forum on the theme “Empowering the Private Sector as a key partner in achieving Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the era of COVID-19 and beyond, ”Mr Osei-Bonsu said “in Ghana, natural clay minerals including chlorine exists in almost every region. This source of raw material is a free gift of nature. Once we leverage on this free energy source, there is no reason why we cannot create a great booming industry by converting our abundant clay into a brick industry.”

He added that “building with clay brick reduces the impact of natural resource consumption and offers enormous temperature control benefits. It is a natural insulator; slowly losing and absorbing heat and helping slash energy through a process called thermal mass. It is estimated that we can reduce the cost of building by at least 40 percent.”

Citing Colombia which utilizes the clay bricks in the construction of roads, he said “most of the inner city roads are made from clay, so cars cannot speed, you have to maintain a certain level of limitation. When you go to Kumasi at the BRRI [Building Road Research Institute] you will find that a brick road that was constructed 18 years ago has not seen any maintenance at all for the past 18 years and is still solid.”

He thus called for the usage “of bricks in the construction of our roadways, especially the urban roadways and even some of our high streets. It can also reduce the overspeeding on our roads and will reduce serious accidents and carnage on our roads.”

The two-day investment forum seeks to “engage private sector players on the opportunities and risks to climate change investment and to identify possible concrete actions that can be taken forward to overcome key barriers, particularly in the era of COVID-19.”

The forum is hosted by the Private Enterprises Federation in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance (Economic Strategy and Research Division), Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) and the United Nations Development Programme under the GCF Readiness Programme and the Nationally Determined Contribution Support Programme.