The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, says the National Service Scheme (NSS) venturing into the built-sector would be a game-changer towards the attainment of low-cost housing for the nation.
He noted that with the barrage of expertise at its disposal, the move stands the chance of making a great impact in the construction of low-cost housing especially for teachers across the country.
Dr Adutwum said this when he visited the NSS Headquarters in Accra.
He also used the opportunity to inaugurate a newly constructed supplementary office complex for the national secretariat of the Scheme.
The ultra-modern office attachment was constructed by some selected NSS personnel who have the technical know-how from the built industry ready to help the scheme in the national low-cost housing project.
Dr Adutwum assured the NSS of the government’s readiness to support them with the needed resources, as well as create an enabling environment for them to operate in. He also announced plans to bring the various stakeholders together to contribute effectively to ensure that this project becomes a reality.
The Executive Director of the NSS, Osei Assibey Antwi, in response, said, the scheme has the team that can put up these houses at an affordable cost. He said they have a backlog of about 1000 service persons in the construction field who can take up any task given.
Dr Adutwum added that the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) spends a lot of money on classroom buildings, but some of them are not in good shape, saying they are ready to take up these works when given the chance.
He assured the nation that, the scheme is ready to collaborate with the various stakeholders in the country to ease the burden of Ghanaians in acquiring or building their own houses at an affordable cost.
The NSS in its bid to succeed has acquired a two-acre land at Hwereso in the Ejisu Municipality in the Ashanti region to start the construction of its model structures.
The model structures are made up of two, three, four and five-bedroom facilities to be selected by the various teachers per their choice and agreement to the payment plan before being constructed.