The President of the Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE), Ing. Kwabena Bempong, has pointed out that the government has no business building houses.

According to him, the government’s role is to provide the necessary policy and right institutional framework, provide easy access to affordable lands, financing, building materials and basic infrastructure.

Delivering his 52nd Presidential Address to Engineers of the Ghana Institution of Engineering at the Ghana Shippers Authority, Shippers House, North Ridge, Accra, Ing. Bempong said the governments should ensure that social housing is pursued to ensure affordability for low-income workers.

Furthermore, he said as construction costs rise and urbanization accelerates, the housing market tends to cater primarily to the affluent, excluding individuals in the low to medium-income category from accessing suitable housing.

“Housing is defined as unaffordable if more than 30% of the monthly or annual income of a household is spent on housing”, he added.

The GhIE President said it is estimated that about 80% of Ghana’s building materials are imported, which are subject to global economic trends such as commodity pricing, high labour costs, geopolitical wars and others.

He recommended the use of affordable building materials such as the use of Bio-based materials like Timber, Bamboo and improvement on non-renewable building materials such as Green cement, Pulverized Fly Ash, Blast Furnace Slag, Calcined Clay, Burnt Rice Husk and Natural Pozzolans for the building of houses in Ghana.

He also recommended alternative building technologies such as Rammed Earth Building, Interlocking Bricks Construction, Reinforced Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Foam Building System as well as Glass Fibre Reinforced Gypsum and Light Gauge Steel Framed Structures (LGFS).

Present at the ceremony included the wife of the President of GhIE, ACP Priscilla Bempong; the Vice-President of GhIE, Ing. Sophia Abena Tijani; President-Elect of GhIE, Ing. Ludwig Hesse; Immediate Past President of GhIE, Ing. Rev. Prof. Charles Anum Adams, who joined the program online; Ing (Mrs. Carlien Bou-Chedid, Immediate Past President of Federation of African Engineering Organization (FAEO), Ing. Leslie Alex Ayeh, Immediate Past President of West African Federation of Engineering Organization (WAFEO); Council members of GhIE, Past Presidents of GhIE, Women in Engineering (WINE) and representatives of other Professional Bodies.