As part of the government’s efforts to reduce the burden of Ghanaian workers who are seeking a decent place to lay their heads and call home, the State Housing Company (SHC), has entered into a partnership with Ecobank Ghana Limited to provide mortgage financing services to the public.
At a signing ceremony in Accra yesterday, the Deputy Managing Director of the SHC, Samuel Atukwei Quaye, said the partnership is part of efforts by the corporation to fulfil the promise made by the President, John Mahama, to provide truly affordable housing solutions to the expectant Ghanaian public.
He noted that the provision of houses is one of the primary duties of government, while echoing the sentiment of Ghanaians about the exorbitant house prices in the country.
In view of this, he said the SHC has been working to crack the affordability code, by partnering with other institutions in the home finance space, one of which is Ecobank.
Samuel Quaye said, “we are going to embrace this partnership and offer quality, convenient services [to the public]. He further iterated that the mortgage financing service will be integrated into the recently launched 24-hour centre to ensure speed and reliability.”
He also said, “we’re going to take this very seriously. We want Ghanaians to find good expression in the promises that the president gave.”
He further disclosed that the Housing Company will introduce technology in its operations to ensure that the prices of its houses are reasonable enough for the buyer.
He urged Ghanaians to embrace the culture of living in small estate communities, rather than the current fixation with individual houses, a situation he believes can help improve security in these new sites.
On the prices of the houses themselves, he told reporters that they would depend on the location of the houses as well as the kind of houses that the clients want to buy or build.
The Executive Director and Regional Head of Consumer Banking at Ecobank Ghana/AWA, Tara Squire, described the housing challenge as “one of the biggest problems in Ghana,” noting that there has been no real concerted effort apart from the government to take on the challenge and resolve it.
He, however, stated that Ecobank has taken this challenge on with the support of the State Housing Company to make it easier for the people of Ghana to acquire homes.
He indicated that the main objective for partnering with the primary builder in the country, “is to bring affordability in terms of the housing and the financing, and that is as simple as it gets.”
