The Minister for Works and Housing, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has indicated that government has started engagement with the Ghana Association of Banks to explore areas in reducing the cost of construction finance.

This, he said is one of the key areas affecting contractors across the country, hence the need for an urgent move to find solutions to the problem.

Mr. Nkrumah explained that cost of borrowing to finance projects is major difficulty to stakeholders in the construction sector.

He said the ministry is also in touch with the Finance Ministry to provide some incentives for players within the housing sector.

“We are having interaction with the Ghana Association of Banks to explore ways by which we can reduce the cost of construction finance in Ghana.”

“The Finance Minister agrees with us that we have to stimulate the private sector to support the public. We are in touch with the Finance Ministry to look into some of the incentives for the housing sector”, he said.

He bemoaned the lack of promotion for local materials and technology for building.

He stated that he intends to work assiduously to ensure more of local materials are used to cut down cost.

“We need to promote a lot more local technology construction and it is one of the policy direction to cut down cost so we are also considering that heavily”, he added.

He also reiterated the need to address the land tenure system and pledged more support to improving the housing sector.