US Secretary arrives to sign $30m for Ghana's housing

Accra, Nov 21, GNA - Mr Alphonso Jackson, Secretary of US Department of Housing and Urban Development, arrives in Ghana on Monday, November 27 for a three-day visit during which he will sign an agreement with the government for an initial 30 million dollar loan to support Ghana's housing project.

The loan from the Overseas Private Investment Cooperation (OPIC) is the contribution of US private sector commitment to entering into private partnership with Ghanaians to provide affordable housing units with the promise to provide more in the housing sector. The 30 million dollars loan would be partly used to study the land tenure system in Ghana and how to make ownership of houses transparent.

Mr Jackson would also attend the first West African Affordable Housing Conference in Ghana from November 28 to December 1 and meet with land and housing Ministers to help to increase investments into the provision of affordable houses for the poor.

The meeting, which would bring together countries such as Nigeria, Senegal, Benin, Mali, Cape Verde as well as the US and Canada. Keynote speakers would include President John Agyekum Kufuor, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Habitat, Mrs Anna Tibaijuka and Mr Jackson.

The discussions would focus on how government policy and regulatory framework and incentives could support existing finance institutions for affordable, private sector housing and innovations. The rest are how strategic institutional arrangements could be used to promote affordable houses and public-private partnership and financial intermediaries such as housing companies, finance institutions and community-based organisations.

The conference is being jointly organised by the Government of Ghana, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and UN Habitat with financial support from coalition of international development partners including US Department of Housing and Urban Development; Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Western Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Mr Jackson, speaking in a tele-conference from Washington DC in a pre-departure interview said the loan "is just the beginning of a major plan the US has to support President John Agyekum Kufour's Government".

"We see in President Kufour's Government a stable economy in promoting democracy and peace, which President Bush is also committed to."

Mr Jackson, who was in 1976 a Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon and was later appointed Secretary of United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2004, said he was happy he was visiting Ghana again.