With Ghana’s housing deficit standing at 1,300,000 units, the Renaissance Group in Ghana have begun a plan to build two new cities in Accra and Western Region in the next 10-15 years. The Appolonia City of Light and King City projects in Accra and Takoradi respectively are part of a major plan by the group to develop urban centres that meet the growing expectation of Africa’s cities, Dela Wosornu, Country head for the Renaissance Group in Ghana confirmed to Myjoyonline.com at the sidelines of a breakfast meeting with editors, Thursday. When completed the “Appolonia City which is about 40 km from Accra will provide 22,500 residential units and will house 88,000 people. There will also be commercial, retail and industrial warehousing leisure units. King City is 10 km from Takoradi Harbour and will have about 24,000 dwelling units, 98,000 residents over the next 10-15 years with a right mix of industrial, residential, commercial retail and leisure facilities to support the growth of the Ghanaian economy,” Wosornu said. According to him, the project is currently at the level of engineering design for roads, water and other infrastructure with the management team working with a wide range of real housing developers to ensure the product that is delivered to the market can meet the pockets of all Ghanaians. “Getting equipment to the site is the easiest part of construction,” he said, adding, a lot of time have gone into the environment impact assessment and getting the right stakeholders and partners on board. Explaining the details of the project, Dela Wosornu said Renaissance has already procured several thousand acres of land for the two projects- 2,000 acres for Appolonia and 2,400 acres for King City- which will be leased to real estate developers as well as individuals to build houses for residential and commercial purposes. The houses will be built to meet specifications and designs provided by Renaissance. The project is expected to benefit the communities and their surroundings in the two regions and ease the burdens of urbanization on Ghana’s cities as well decrease the housing deficit in the country. It is also expected to increase employment opportunities and provide support for commercial activities in the Western Region. Other Renaissance world class city projects in Africa include Kenya’s Tatu City, Kiswishi in DR Congo and Roma Parki in Zambia.