Kandifo Institute, one of Ghana’s fastest growing think tanks on Monday 2 August 2021 launched the “Ghana Innovative Housing Project.”
The project aims at solving the standing housing deficit problem in Ghana by constructing prefab- houses or modular houses at extremely affordable rates.
A memorandum of understanding has been signed between Kandifo Institute, Halzebatz SARL and Shelta Space as part of the initiative.
Speaking to journalists after the signing in Accra, Palgrave Boakye-Danquah, executive director of Kandifo Institute, said “the initiative is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals which seeks to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable and this is why it is necessary for all and sundry to start engaging in innovative housing projects.”
He said the project will be the game-changer in “affordable housing” in Ghana because most regular houses tagged “affordable housing” are not affordable to the average.
In mid-2020, the degree of urbanisation worldwide was 56% and this has been projected to increase to 70% by 2050. According to the United Nations, about 1.6 billion people live in substandard housing and 100 million are homeless. In certain parts of the world, housing prices shot up faster than household incomes of most people.
Housing deficit
Boakye-Danquah said housing is fundamental to the physical and financial security, healthy communities, economic productizing and the wellbeing of humans but now the housing gap has become huge and keeps growing. Most people now live in informal settlements and lack access to basic amenities.
Statistics show that the current population of Ghana in 2021 is 31,732,129 people and this is a 2.12% increase from 2020. The provision of affordable land and housing remains a challenge in most countries, especially for African countries.
Most analysts say the lack of affordable houses, high costs of urban land and weak tenure security, rising construction costs and prevalence of slums are major challenges facing the continent’s effort to eradicate the housing crisis.
As part of the initiative, Kandifo Institute will provide policy direction for the Ghana Innovative Housing Project which targets low income earners or the average Ghanaian. The project is expected to employ the use of very simple and innovative housing practices in building thereby creating jobs.
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