Question NW3687 to the Minister of Human Settlements

Reply:

a) The partnership with the Republic of Ghana is a bilateral relationship that seeks to;

Establish and formalise exchanges on adequate and affordable housing delivery. The Department of Human Settlements has had ongoing exchanges with the Ministry of Works and Housing of the Republic of Ghana, mostly at international meetings, advancing the creation of sustainable human settlements.

The partnership also becomes a platform to facilitate the establishment of networks between sector actors outside of government to forge public-private collaboration that will enable the delivery of affordable housing. Moreover, the platform was instrumental for bringing together business entities to respond to the growing need for human settlements infrastructure that is required at scale and pace, in response to the trends of rapid urbanisation.

The Minister of Human Settlements undertook to advance the cordial relations between the two countries to deepen exchanges in respect to approaches in the provision of adequate housing and undertook an official visit in this regard during October 2023.

b) Some of the best practice models witnessed in Ghana include, but are not limited to;

• Employer assisted housing, through which public-private partnerships are developed (government and a private companies/ employers) with the view to build houses for a predetermined category of employees who would ordinarily not be able to build houses for themselves.

• Blended finance from government and private sector sources to raise capital in a complimentary manner in order to fund joint business ventures.

• Property practitioner regulations and management, which regulates the affairs of all property practitioners, spells out the obligations of the property practitioners towards housing consumers and strives to maintain professional standards in the property practitioners’ sector.

These areas will be explored through further knowledge exchanges between the two countries.