By Frank Amponsah
As part of measures to providing affordable houses for Ghanaians, government in partnership with the government of Hungary through Solin, a private company from Hungarian with expertise in providing polystyrene concrete technology housing systems is to commence the construction of affordable houses for the country.
The technology will afford people the opportunity to own a house in 11 days.
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The project which seeks to bridge the housing gap among Ghanaians will provide a fast, cost-effective and affordable house based on a polystyrene concrete technology to ultimately construct 10,000 housing units for Ghanaians.
The agreement which is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the government of Ghana will mandate Solin to finance and build these housing units for Ghanaians which will subsequently be absorbed by Government to citizens on flexible and affordable terms.
Solin intends to establish a factory in Ghana to aid Government’s one district one factory initiative to locally produce the materials needed for the construction of these rapid technology houses. When the factory is set up and the materials produced locally, the company will annually construct 2,000 housing units for Ghanaians.
The developer and technology provider, Solin also identified a local partner, Sino Africa Development Company, a construction company to undertake all civil works to meet the local construction standards and also transfer the technology unto the local partner.
A sample 3-bedroom housing unit using this technology has been constructed on the Spintex road in Accra and was commissioned by the Ministry of Works and Housing led by Hon. Samuel Atta-Akyea, and a team from Hungary led by His Excellency Andras Szabo, the Hungarian Ambassador to Ghana.
Polystyrene concrete Housing Technology has been present in the construction industry for several decades, however, its application has not spread worldwide yet. Polystyrene is used for building insulation, since it offers a cheap solution. In contrast, polystyrene concrete is non-flammable, it provides excellent fire safety and it produces a minimal amount of smoke when burning.
Conventional concrete can be applied primarily for the construction of load-bearing structures, while structures built from polystyrene concrete have excellent insulating ability as well, therefore, they require no additional insulation.
Speaking at the commissioning of rapid housing project in Accra, the Minister for Works and Housing, Atta Akyea indicated that Ghana is facing a very embarrassing housing deficit of 1.7 billion units.
“We cannot have a very same society if people do not have decent places of abode. We in the ministry of Works and Housing, this is our headache. How do we address such huge deficit? Per the budget of government, we cannot address this deficit,” he said.
According to him, government has put together concrete measures to ensure that the problem of housing is addressed, hence the intervention of the people of Hungary into Ghana.
He averred that the Hungarians are coming into the country with Modern technologies that have some much prospects for Ghana “if we tap into it, we will in no time, wipe out the housing deficit.”
He also said there is an arrangement to have a factory in the background that dovetails into One District One Factory, use local raw material, and open job prospects for Ghanaians.
Atta Akyea also mentioned that there will soon be a mortgage regime in Ghana where people subscribing to the pension fund can have the opportunity to own a house.
