Epoch-Making Housing Project

The journey towards addressing the over two million housing deficit confronting the country begins today as the Vice-President launches an ambitious housing project at Amasaman, Accra.

Ghanaians must be excited that at last a pragmatic step has been taken to house persons who have had to endure the swing moods of landlords and landladies.

Accessing shelter by every person is an important attribute of human dignity, the deprivation of which is enough to reduce man to the status of a ruminant. The availability of a dignified shelter can arguably pass for a human right behoving the state to provide for its citizens or providing them with the necessary impetus and ingredients to acquire it themselves.

Perhaps that is why communist systems provide it for their citizens as a matter of obligation on the part of the state.

We count ourselves fortunate to join Kenya as the only two African countries to benefit from the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Sustainability Housing Solutions (SHS) project.

The objectives of the project are palpable and do not require belabouring.

We must be grateful to President Akufo-Addo for his role in bringing to fruition a project to which he appended his signature on the sidelines of a UN engagement in New York early this year.

Accessing such game-changers demands the qualities of good leadership hinged upon good governance; a sincere commitment from government to support such a gargantuan project should not be in doubt.

But for the existence of the foregone, we can bet that we would not have been witnessing today's epoch-making event.

What started as a discussion and later graduating to the appending of signatures has metamorphosed into the cutting of the sod to flag the commencement of work for 100,000 housing units.

For those who were unconvinced about today must, of course, rethink their stance because the sod is being cut and construction materials will soon be moved to site for the actual construction to commence.

The infrastructural development which comes with such major projects make them indeed game-changers as observed by the Vice-President during an official engagement.

The dividends to be derived from the project are multifaceted and too many to be covered in such a limited space of an editorial. Artisans of various disciplines, top flight professionals such as architects, engineers, among others, are going to benefit from the novelties in construction, among other things, which the project is bringing.

It is our hope that those who will manage the project will truly transfer knowledge to the citizens of this country.

With our tertiary institutions churning out hundreds of professionals in related disciplines such as quantity surveying, electrical engineering and others another job creator has landed waiting to be accessed.

Amasaman like all new settlements which used to be regarded as too distant from Accra Central will witness massive growth as a result of this project.

The Amasaman interchange which is ongoing will join the housing project to jolt Accra to new infrastructural heights.

Law enforcement agents, municipal assembly, residents and other stakeholders must all co-operate with the contractors and others to ensure the success of the project.