Flagbearer for the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo has pledged his administration will build 100,000 housing units annually to reduce the housing deficits over the next ten years, if his party emerged victorious in the December 7th General Elections. Nana Akufo-Addo estimates the proposed housing plan for the country to cost between $1.8 billion and $2.5 billion each year for ten years. He revealed, his administration will also propose the use of a proportion of workers’ pension’s fund and Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions as down payment, to enable workers purchase affordable homes, instead of having to struggle to pay between 20-30% cash as down payment before one could acquire a home. Addressing members of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) at a meeting on Monday, Nana Addo said his administration if elected, will establish a regulatory body and a housing agency, with the responsibility of identifying and creating additional land banks to meet current housing needs of the country. He said an NPP administration will make it a priority for local companies to play key roles in helping to reduce the challenges of housing deficits and encourage Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to embark on programs that will deal with the phenomenal demand of excessive rent advance payments by landlords. According to him, local assemblies will be supported to set up District Housing Funds, to provide infrastructure for rental housing schemes to newly engaged workers and head porters known commonly as “Kayayei”. He criticized the current NDC administration for doing little in addressing the housing needs of the country, after failing on a number of occasions to secure a deal with foreign companies to construct affordable houses for security agencies. The NPP flagbearer faulted the NDC for abandoning the affordable housing project initiated by ex-president John Agyakum Kufuor shortly before the NPP exited power, which he noted “could have seen about 6,000 Ghanaians have the right to live in well constructed houses”. He vowed to complete all the housing projects started by the Kufuor administration if the NPP was voted back to power. He called on members of the GREDA to vote the NDC out of power in December because “this do little government came to do nothing, have done nothing and are incapable of doing anything for this country”.