John Mahama’s second tenure as president of Ghana began on 7 January 2025, when he was inaugurated as the 14th president. Mahama, who previously served as president from 2012 to 2017, was elected for a full second term in the 2024 Ghanaian general election.
President Mahama sent a list of his third batch of 14 ministerial nominees to the parliament on Tuesday for screening and approval. This report examines the challenges before Ghana’s Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources nominee Adjei Kenneth Gilbert.
Adjei Kenneth Gilbert brings a wealth of experience to the job, having served as Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Defence from 2015 to 2017 during John Mahama’s first tenure, served as a board member National Lottery Authority and currently serves as a board executive of the Lordina foundation.
The new minister-designate has a responsibility to reduce the huge housing deficit in Ghana which currently stands at 1.8 million but experts believe these figures are higher as the population continues to expand.
In August 2023, the previous administration launched an ambitious plan to construct 14,000 affordable housing units tagged “my home my peace” in partnership with private developers. Under this public-private partnership, the government provides land and the necessary infrastructure on-site such as access roads, water, and electricity, among others, while the developers will build on these sites.
To make these houses affordable, the Ghanaian Government implemented a price ceiling that developers in this new program cannot exceed. Three Ghanaian companies and one company each from India and Morocco were selected to participate. The first phase, comprising 8,000 units, had a completion timeline of 18 months. The second phase will also follow a similar timeline. The unit prices were capped between $13,220 for a studio and $42,550 for a three-bedroom unit.
The new administration must ensure the continuation of this program and immediately fastrack its actualization as the first phase of the project located in Pokuase, in the Greater Accra Region remained uncompleted 17 months after it was flagged off by former president Nana Akufo Ado’s Administration. With one month to the completion date, work on-site does not show that this project will be delivered in the next 30 days.
President John Mahama and his new henchman who will be in charge of housing, Adjei Kenneth Gilbert must as a matter of urgency design and implement policies and programs that will ameliorate the plight of over 1.8 million Ghanaians without home ownership, address the spike in the mortgage, provide an enabling environment for a private investor to invest in mass housing, deplore homegrown approach to construction and reduce over-dependence on imported building materials.
