The Deputy Minister of Works and Housing has launched the maiden edition of the City Construction & Property (CCP) Awards at the British Council, Accra on Wednesday, December 12, 2018.

Under the theme: Conceive, Construct, Conserve, the award scheme has been instituted by Image Consortium, a marketing communication company which has organized International Building Construction and Properties Exhibition for the past 16 years.

Launching the CCP Awards, Eugene Boakye Antwi, who is also the Member of Parliament for Subin, said the theme of the award encapsulates the entire building experience and provides the opportunity for dissecting all the major parts of the building process and rewarding them individually.

“In this theme design teams, project teams and facility managers, all have equal chance of being recognized and rewarded”, he added.

The Deputy Minister took the opportunity to commend the organizers, Image Consortium Group for creating the platform to celebrate and appreciate the efforts and achievements of our noble players in the built industry.

“Housing is a component of infrastructure that promotes human dignity. Government has over the years, demonstrated keen interest in ensuring that the good people of Ghana have access to decent, adequate and affordable housing. Available data puts Ghana’s housing deficit in excess of 1.7 million housing units. To address this deficit, there is the need for a minimum annual delivery of about 85,000 housing units over the next 20 years”, he revealed

He congratulated the collaborators of the CCP Awards, Ghana Institute of Architects, Ghana Institution of Engineering, Ghana Consulting Engineers Association, Ghana Institution of Surveyors, Ghana Institute of Planners, Chartered Institute of Building, Real Estate Developers and all stakeholders in the built profession for keeping the development of our great nation in high esteem. He mentioned that Government recognizes their tireless inputs in making our living conditions comfortable and assured that Government would always resolve to motivate the gallant-built professionals so that the enthusiasm instilled today will not fade away.

The Chairman of the launch, Mr. Simon Dornoo said the activities of the built industry cannot be taken for granted especially where Ghana is on the path of development and building factories, schools, hospitals and high rising buildings in the country. He explained the categories to be awarded to include, Residential buildings, Recreational buildings, Rural Housing, Public buildings and Commercial buildings.

In her welcome address, the Executive Director of Image Consortium, Mrs. Eugenia France explained that it is the considered opinion that the Building Construction and Properties sector deserves an award scheme to recognize their hard-working professionals and entrepreneurs who we call craft masters, who are making great strides and “Building It Right”, as their mantra goes.

She added that in line with their quest for organizational excellence in the selection of awards, categories, awards criteria and eventual awardees would be handled by a distinguished adjudication panel, who would take a lot of things into consideration especially innovative designs, efficient utilization of land space and long-lasting buildings that have stood the test of time.

The award ceremony is scheduled to take place in April next year.

There were goodwill messages from the Collaborators (Ghana Institute of Architects, Ghana Institution of Engineering, Ghana Consulting Engineers Association, Ghana Institution of Surveyors, Ghana Institute of Planners, Chartered Institute of Building), who were fully represented by their officials at the launch.