President Akufo-Addo said the bidding process for auxiliary roads such as the IPT-Bokankye road had also begun, disclosing that it had already been advertised in the dailies. Addressing the chiefs and people of Oyoko in the Nwabiagya North District, he said he had directed the Ministry of Finance to release an amount of $27 million to the contractors to immediately commence the second phase of the project.

The President was speaking at a sod-cutting ceremony to begin the construction of an affordable housing units at Oyoko. The project, which comprised 100 homes and 125 apartments is being executed by the State Housing Company (SHC) as part of efforts to address the housing deficit in the country.

It has been christened the “John Agyekum Kufuor Estates” in honour of the former President and is expected to generate about 4,000 direct and indirect jobs. He said naming the project after the former President was apt considering his enormous contribution towards addressing the housing deficit.

The second phase of the housing project, the President hinted, would see the construction of 1000 housing units at Sewua and applauded the Kumasi Traditional Council and the Asantehene Otumfour Osei Tutu II for facilitating the release of the land.

Ms Freda Prempeh, the Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, said government’s inability to meet the housing needs of the citizenry in the past had created a huge backlog estimated to be in excess of 1.7 million.

She said the housing supply requirement was about 150,000 per annum, but available data indicated that only 40 per cent of the figure was achieved annually and it was against that background that government was targeting the provision of 100,000 housing units by the close of 2019 to improve the situation.

She disclosed that the Ministry was working with a number of local and international investors on supplier’s credit facilities with the Government of Ghana acting through the Ministry of Finance to construct about 200,000 low income housing units nationwide over the next five years.

The government, she noted, was aiming at the establishment of a sustainable housing fund which would direct and stimulate housing investment to strategic segment of the industry.

She said it was government’s vision to use an appropriate mix of public and private investments to deliver quality and affordable houses that corresponded the financial capacities of the ordinary Ghanaian.