“Ghana’s unemployment challenges could be solved substantially by paying attention to the housing industry, which has a value chain that can provide meaningful jobs for over 80,000 unemployed youth”, The Chief Executive Officer of Danywise Estate and Construction, Mr. Frank Aboagye Danyansah has disclosed to the Business Day.
Speaking to the Business Day ahead of a major project to be undertaken by the company, Mr. Danyansah maintained that Ghana could solve two major economic challenges—unemployment and housing deficit by injecting the needed capital required for the housing industry to make it lucrative.
He expressed concerns over the growing unemployment level among the youth, whose energy and competencies he suggested could be directed at the industry to yield optimum result.
“Ghana has a housing shortfall of 1.7 million units and this is expected to escalate by 2018, the youth unemployment is also surging; we can engage this young and active youth into the housing industry”, he stressed.
Mr Danyansah, who is also aspiring to be a Member of Parliament for Obuasi East warned that the country risks a housing crisis in the next three years if policymakers fail to clearly outline measures towards averting the situation.
“There is inevitable need for managers of the economy to start from the urban centres” he said, where the demand for housing is fast outstripping its supply at a rate of 17.5 per cent annually.
“If government does not support the private sector, it will be difficult for us to put up affordable structures,” he added.
He noted that the private sector is heavily dependent on private funding, which comes with high interest cost.
He expressed worry that most of the housing put up by foreign developers do not meet local needs and the growing middle class as the foreigners are usually influenced by their culture and background to satisfy the taste of upper-class citizenry.
He called for the swift passage of the Ghana Real Estate Development Fund into law to enable stakeholders in the sector access funding at relatively lower cost in order to augment Ghana’s housing policy requirement.
Mr. Danyansah suggested the need for the government to engage the services of domestic developers in policy design of housing, a move he stressed would create jobs for Ghanaians and retain profit in the country to bolster the national economy.
He observed that, because most people are unable to meet the current prohibitive mortgage terms, it would be prudent for government to partner with local developers to provide affordable housing to Ghanaians.
