Veep to cut sod for construction of 100,000 housing project

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia would on Wednesday, August 28, perform a groundbreaking ceremony for construction works to begin on the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS) at the Amasaman District One Site in the Ga West municipality.

The housing project is worth five billion dollars and will see the construction of 100,000 affordable houses, which falls under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

It will be implemented by the UNOPS, in partnership with the Sustainable Housing Solutions (SHS), aimed at reducing the over two million housing deficit in Ghana.

The UNOPS recently rolled out a US$15 billion project to construct affordable houses in some countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

Ghana and Kenya are the beneficiary countries from Africa while India will also benefit from the project in Asia.

The partnership will witness UNOPS and SHS delivering more than 260,000 high-quality affordable homes across the selected countries.

The project will provide thousands of job opportunities for local communities and construction of renewable energy sources.

Ghana signed the agreement for the housing project in September 2018 in New York, US, at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, which was witnessed by President Akufo-Addo.

The new partnership will also explore new opportunities in the renewable market, with UNOPS expected to work with MYRA-SHS Energy, a subsidiary of SHS, which focuses on investments in renewable energy projects and associated infrastructure.

The project forms part of the latest step in UNOPS' Social Impact Investing Initiative aimed at attracting financing from the private sector to develop projects in emerging markets.

The technology is earthquake and hurricane resistant and constituent with the utilization of renewable energy and non-toxic insect-repellent properties.

The concept aims at providing a 'turn-key solution' to reduce the current shortfall of tens of millions of decent dwellings across the globe.