Government is to facilitate the construction of 5,000 affordable housing units across the country for low and middle income earners.

This forms part of government's plan to halve the over 1.7 million housing deficit by 2016.

President John Mahama announced this Wednesday, when he cut the sod for commencement of work on a new 5,000 housing unit government is constructing for workers at Ningo in the Greater Accra Region.

He said government expects a significant number of the houses to be completed and delivered by Construtora OAS, a Brazilian construction firm, before end of 2016.

The president also said government was finalising a deal with the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), to take over the funding and completion of the 5,000 abandoned housing units in Accra, Kumasi, Wa and Tamale.

The abandoned projects formed part of the affordable housing project initiated by the John Agyekum Kufuor administration but works on the project stalled, after the late president John Atta Mills' administration took over in 2009..

President Mahama, who was in the company of Water Resources, Works and Housing Minister, Collins Dauda, gave the assurance that his administration  will deliver on the promises made to Ghanaians by the year 2016.

"Step by step we are fulfilling all the promises we made to Ghanaians...and these would be fulfilled by 2016," Mr. Mahama emphasized.