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14.03.2012 Business & Finance

Messrs AGU Builds 10,000 Housing Units

14.03.2012 LISTEN
By Daily Guide

Messrs AGU Resources Ghana Limited, a real estate and construction company, has secured a US$100-million loan facility to construct 10,000 affordable housing units in the country.

The loan for the 10,000 affordable housing units project, captured in the 2012 National Budget Statement under Government's Infrastructure Development for Accelerated Growth and Job Creation Programme, was secured from Wilshaw Associates Limited, a foreign investment company in the United Kingdom (UK).

The project is under a private public partnership (PPP) arrangement with the Government of Ghana, represented by the Ministry Water Resources, Works and Housing.

Bernard Kofi Agumeh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Messrs AGU Resources Limited, told the media in Accra that the project is aimed at enhancing land use and increasing the delivery of decent but spacious apartments for Ghanaians.

He said the apartments, which would also be naturally-illuminated and energy-efficient, would first be offered to interested civil and public servants as well as middle to low-income workers.

Mr Agumeh said the project includes a police station, post office, hospital, swimming pool, football park, a shopping center, interdenominational church and educational facilities adding that streetlights, tarred roads, dedicated electricity, constant water supply would be available in the AGU Resources communities.

'The first phase of the project is being constructed on a 74.047-acre land at Odumasi/Nsakina and Amasaman in the Ga West District and the architectural, structural, electrical and engineering drawings of the project would be provided by Messrs EH Group.'

Already, a consortium of architects, planners, engineers and builders based in Accra, are providing the project management services for the phase one of the project.

The CEO revealed that a total of 320 blocks, comprising 2,560 apartments will be ready for occupancy in about twenty months' time to be followed immediately by sale to members of the public.

Currently, Ghana's housing deficit stands at approximately 1.5 million. The AGU Resources project is expected to support the achievement of government's national housing policy within the enabling policy framework created to support the private sector to increase housing delivery in the country.

Messrs Top International Engineering, an Accra-based international Chinese company, is the lead sub-contractors responsible for the infrastructural development and total execution of the project.

It will undertake the project in collaboration with some Ghanaian contractors.

Messrs Agumeh and Nicholas T. Grimshaw, CEOs respectively for the two companies, signed the agreement on March 7, 2012.

By Stella Danso Addai

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