Building and construction exhibition opens in Accra
The Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing has opened an international building, construction and property exhibition to showcase the various products, services and technology in the building and property industry in Ghana.
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The show is to create a one stop shop for all building and construction materials as part of efforts to promote Ghana’s building industry.
It is also aimed at creating opportunities for industry players to share experiences and network to facilitate the growth and development of the construction and housing industry.
Other activities at the show include seminars and workshops geared towards creating awareness to "Build Right", using quality products and services in the construction, building and home furnishing sectors.
It is organised by Image Consortium in collaboration with the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing every year.
The five-day event, on the theme: “Heritage is hip life” seeks to highlight the need to preserve historic buildings.
In an address read on his behalf at the openning of the exhibition in Accra, the sector Minister, Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, said there was no doubt that the Ghanaian construction industry was one of the keys to national development.
“Construction contributes to national socio-economic development by providing significant employment opportunities for skilled and unskilled labour,” he said.
The minister also said the industry provides physical infrastructure and facilities required for other sectors of the economy to flourish. He mentioned roads, energy, education, health and trade and industry as some of the beneficiary sectors.
Dr Agyemang-Mensah said to support the construction and housing industries to thrive, the government had instituted a national housing policy to create an enabling environment for players in the industry to operate and put up more affordable houses for the people.
“I charge you to comprehensively discuss and bring out issues affecting the industry with proposed solutions and how collaborations can help address those issues,” he said.
The minister was optimistic that such proposals would help policy makers to take decisions that would benefit the industry.
The Chief Executive Officer of Consortium Limited, Mrs Maame Afua Sakyi-Addo, recommended that as part of the local content policy of the government, all foreign construction firms should be mandated to engage in some level of collaboration with a local partner to help boost the local industry.
“We believe such collaboration would help to complement the technical knowledge and skills of players in the local industry,” she said.
Mrs Sakyi-Addo also observed that such collaborations would help to transfer best international practices in the industry to local contractors in the country.
