Govt to launch Greenville Housing Programme
Ghana has taken a leap towards sustainable green construction with the announcement that the upcoming Greenville District Housing Programme will be 100 per cent EDGE-certified, using low-carbon and locally sourced building materials.
The announcement was made by the Minister for Works, Housing and Water Resources, Kenneth Gilbert Adjei, at the official close-out ceremony of the highly successful Designing for Greater Efficiency Programme, held last Thursday evening at the World Bank Group building at Ridge in Accra.
Describing the occasion as not an end, but a new beginning, the Minister told hundreds of architects, engineers, developers, bankers, lecturers and students that the Greenville initiative will deliver modern, climate-resilient homes at the district level while setting a new national benchmark for green building.
“Every site and every single housing unit under the Greenville District Housing Programme will pursue EDGE certification. We are proving once and for all that large-scale housing can be both affordable and environmentally responsible,” he stated.
Cutting-EDGE skills
The three-year DfGE Programme, funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and implemented by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has equipped over 250 Ghanaian professionals and students with cutting-edge skills in resource-efficient design.
In her remarks, Ms Yewande Giwa, IFC Senior Country Officer for Ghana, said the momentum built over the past three years would endure, thanks to the continued free availability of the EDGE software and certification system.
“Green buildings must remain accessible to all if our cities are to become truly resilient, inclusive and low-carbon,” she stressed.
The Head of Cooperation at the Swiss Embassy, Ms Magdalena Wüst, congratulated Ghana for the transformative strides achieved and noted that green buildings not only fight climate change but also deliver significant operational savings for owners and occupants.
Ghana leads
The IFC’s Green and Resilient Building Lead in Ghana, Mr Paul Kwesi Ocran, revealed that 254 participants — including 67 women — were trained through partnerships with seven universities and professional bodies, among them KNUST, Ashesi University, Accra Technical University, Takoradi Technical University, Kumasi Technical University, Cape Coast University and the Ghana Institutions of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors.
“Today, Ghana leads West Africa in green building adoption,” Mr Ocran said, adding that a building qualifies as green only when it is third-party certified and achieves at least 20 per cent savings in energy, water and embodied carbon compared to conventional structures.
Gratitude
Rounding off the evening, the Minister thanked IFC and SECO for their unwavering support and promised that the government would introduce fresh policies and incentives to accelerate the green building revolution.
“Together, we are resetting Ghana for growth, jobs and economic transformation — one sustainable building at a time,” he said.
With the DfGE curriculum remaining freely accessible online, speakers were unanimous that the knowledge and networks created will continue shaping Ghana’s construction landscape for generations to come.