Virtual Roundtable on Ghana's Housing Economic Value Chain and Data Landscape

On the 31st of August 2021, CAHF and FSD Africa co-hosted a virtual roundtable on Ghana’s Housing Economic Value Chain to disseminate and critically discuss key findings and recommendations of the Ghana Housing Economic Value Chain/Housing Cost Benchmarking Study and the Data Agenda outputs for Ghana. Opening remarks of the event were provided by Vimal Parmer (Senior Capital Markets Specialist, Financial Sector Deepening Africa). The session moderated by CAHF’s Executive Director Kecia Rust included three presentations by David Gardner (Consultant to CAHF) , Chris Garbers (Data Analyst, 71point4) and Amos Mthembo (Operations Manager for Africa, Reall). The panel discussion included several guest speakers:

Dr. Theresa Tufour (Director of Housing, Ministry of Works and Housing)

Mr. Delali Zumanu (National Housing Mortgage Fund Co-ordinator)

Mr. Patrick Ebo Bonful (President of the Ghana Real Estate Developer’s Association)

Dr. Frank Gyamfi-Yeboah (Senior Lecturer at the Department of Land Economy, KNUST)

Mr. Kojo Addo-Kufuor (Executive Head – Home Loans, First National Bank Ghana)

Background of the Event

In 2020, the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance undertook various studies on Ghana’s housing sector funded by FSDAfrica (with support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)/ UKAid), and with additional support from the French Development Agency (AfD).  These include:

The Ghana Housing Economic Value Chain and Cost Benchmarking Study which provides an overview of the structure of Ghana’s supply and demand for housing, quantifies the sector’s contribution to the economy and identifies recommendations to improve the economic impact and affordability reach of Ghana’s housing sector

In cooperation with Reall and 71point4, CAHF undertook a review of the data landscape in Ghana as it relates to housing finance. The analysis identified 117 indicators across four links in the housing value chain and three broader contextual categories, and then explored their availability, and quality. Related outputs from this exercise include a Bottom 40 dashboard for 10 countries including Ghana, and the Data Landscape Report summarising the work and including key recommendations for public and private data custodians.

Parallel to this effort, the Africa Long-Term Finance Initiative (ALTF), a joint initiative of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD Africa) conducted an in-country diagnostic on Ghana’s Housing Finance Sector, with support from CAHF.