The Ho West MP has endorsed the Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress, John Mahama’s Low-Cost Housing Policy. 

According to Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, the proposed policy which seeks to provide a blueprint for the use of local materials to produce affordable and safe housing units would help reduce Ghana’s housing deficit.

Mr Mahama announced the policy proposal during an interaction with the Executives of the National Tenants Association in his office last Friday in Accra. 

“As a Development Consultant and member of the Works and Housing Committee of Parliament, it is important to emphasise that reducing the housing deficit in Ghana would require not only a well thought through strategy but a bold policy backed by an actionable program such as the current proposal from the party’s flagbearer to enable the next government address the housing needs of the working class in Ghana”, Mr Bedzrah stated in social media post. 

Mr. Bedzrah who is also a fellow of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors, and a Chartered Quantity Surveyor said it has become extremely difficult for the average Ghanaian worker to construct a decent housing unit as the prices of building materials and other associated logistics and transportation costs have increased astronomically. 

This he said was due to high taxes, obnoxious tariffs, and what he described as the lack of interest on the part of the government to prioritize the housing sub-sector. 

“This lack of interest has resulted in an uncontrolled free-for-all pricing regime that has made it practically impossible for the average worker to even contemplate putting up a decent place of abode”, he further said. 

He explained that Mr. Mahama’s policy would see the adaptation of the use of local materials and less expensive but efficient building technologies.

Mr. Bedzrah outlined that these technologies have been tested and approved as they have contributed to providing housing units to the working class in South Africa, the Republic of Benin, and some other developing countries.

“The Low-Cost Building model, in addition to providing decent and truly affordable homes to workers, will ultimately provide jobs for the teeming youth who continue to flood the big cities for non-existing employment opportunities,” he said. 

“The point must be made that even though the housing sub-sector under the infrastructure sector has seen a decline over the past eight years, the government’s so-called “Rental Assistance Scheme Policy” was rather used as a smokescreen to create an impression of a housing policy but was in reality meant for a few party supporters instead of teachers, nurses, security personnel and market women who should be the target for such a scheme”, he added. 

He concluded that “for homeowners and developers to be able to fulfil their dreams under the current economic turmoil, the policy proposal by John Mahama is the surest approach that can help offset the looming danger in the housing sector and it must be embraced by all.”