Deputy Minister of Finance Thomas Nyarko Ampem has outlined three strategic priorities the government believes must be addressed simultaneously to make meaningful progress on Ghana’s housing deficit, telling stakeholders at the National Home Ownership Fair 2026 in Accra that affordable housing cannot be delivered without macroeconomic stability, long-term patient capital, and deep structural reform.
Mr. Ampem spoke at the opening of the two-day fair, organised by the National Home Ownership Fund (NHF) under the theme “Building Ghana, One Home at a Time.” The event brought together ministers, institutional investors, banks, and industry stakeholders to discuss practical financing pathways for housing delivery.
He told the audience that the country’s housing deficit, estimated at more than 1.8 million units as of 2025, was not merely a social welfare concern but a direct economic constraint. Poor living conditions, high rent burdens, and long commuting distances, he argued, reduce household productivity, weaken health outcomes, and limit educational attainment.
“Addressing the housing challenge requires a coordinated effort to stabilise the economy, attract long-term investment and reform structural bottlenecks within the housing sector,” he said.
On the first strategic priority, the Deputy Minister said the Ministry of Finance (MoF) was focused on preserving the macroeconomic gains achieved through fiscal consolidation to keep borrowing costs on a downward trajectory. Lower interest rates, he said, would directly reduce financing costs for both property developers and prospective homeowners.
The second priority involved mobilising what he described as patient capital: long-term funding from pension funds, development finance institutions, and banking partners willing to commit to housing finance on terms that match the long payback cycles of mortgage and rental development.
The NHF has already secured partnerships with GCB Bank, Stanbic Bank, and Republic Bank to provide government-supported, low-interest mortgage facilities. The fund also offers a rent-to-own option, enabling beneficiaries to occupy homes while making payments toward eventual ownership.
The third and arguably most structural priority, Mr. Ampem said, involves cutting non-construction costs that inflate the price of housing before a single brick is laid. Land acquisition bottlenecks, slow permitting processes, and poor baseline infrastructure remain significant cost drivers that policy reform must address.
Citing data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the Deputy Minister noted that the construction sector recorded 5.5 percent year-on-year growth in the third quarter of 2025, indicating that conditions for scaling delivery were beginning to align.
The National Tenants Union of Ghana has previously criticised the 2026 budget for what it described as one of the smallest capital allocations to the housing ministry among social-sector ministries, and has called for the passage of rent control legislation as a foundational fix that successive governments have failed to deliver. Those structural criticisms were not directly addressed at the fair.
Separately, Minister of Works, Housing and Water Resources Kenneth Gilbert Adjei confirmed that two NHF housing projects at Shai Hills and Tema Community 22, comprising a combined 179 units, are nearing completion and expected to be commissioned by the end of March 2026.
