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Executive Director, Legal, Human Resource and Compliance at Ecobank Ghana, Morgan Asiedu has said that the task of providing good accommodation for the nation’s working class, is certainly enormous and cannot be borne by government alone.

Ghana’s current housing deficit is estimated at 1.7 million units, and is expected to rise to 2 million units by 2018.

200,000 housing units will be needed every year for the next 10 years to bridge the gap.

Ecobank Ghana has therefore partnered dozens of Real Estate companies at its maiden Southern Real Estate Fair, to give Ghanaians the opportunity to acquire homes in a more convenient way.

The bank, which was already into mortgages has developed a 15-year plan for home owners at 27.95 percent at a threshold of US$400,000.
It has announced its readiness to adjust its mortgage rates downwards to enable working class Ghanaians acquire their own homes.

Speaking at the opening of the fair, Morgan Asiedu said the provision of decent accommodation for Ghanaians requires the strong participation of the private sector.

“Most of our young men and women in the working class are forced to live at the outskirts of the city and other commercial towns, in substandard dwellings with poor amenities and have to commute long distances to and fro, their work places,” he lamented.

Some of the challenges facing the housing sector include the complexity of land tenure system, cumbersome land registration processes, poor infrastructural development especially in the city outskirts, and the high cost of building materials and construction.
Other challenges include, poor financing options with prohibitive interest rates, poor knowledge of the housing market by potential home owners and lack of reliable data.

Asiedu said “this is why we at Ecobank have taken it upon ourselves to create this platform that brings together Real Estate Companies, Value Chain Suppliers, potential home owners and other patrons of residential properties.”

The bank is therefore seeking to become the best financial option available on the mortgage market as it hopes to take the fair to the northern part of the country.