Boom in Construction Industry Good Sign for Economy (Page 34)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah
THE Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu has said the rate at which massive construction works are going on throughout the country is an indication of an upward growth in the country’s economy.
He said the national economy rested on three sectors, which he named as agriculture, industry and services, and stressed that an improvement in any of those sectors should not be glossed over, since each was considered an important economic indicator.
Mr Baah-Wiredu placed construction together with quarrying and mining, manufacturing, electricity, as well as water supply, under the industrial sector and observed that there had been so many activities in that sector in recent times.
The minister said this when he toured some construction sites in and around the Accra metropolis to see at first-hand, the developments taking place in the construction industry.
Mr Baah-Wiredu said he was prompted to undertake the tour by an article that appeared in the Daily Graphic on Saturday, August 2, 2008 with a headline: “The Life of a Construction Worker in Accra”, which stated that the construction industry had become very vibrant in the country, especially in Accra and other major cities.
The article continued that everywhere one passed there was some form of construction work going on. It is either a house, a bridge or culvert under construction.
It added that because of the boom that the industry was experiencing it had offered employment to many youth.
The tour took Mr Baah-Wiredu to the site of the Presidential Palace under construction, the Airport City where magnificent buildings, which are mostly hotels, are being put up and other sites along the Airport-Legon road, as well as the University of Ghana campus where four huge hostels to house about 1,600 students were under construction.
The total workforce recorded at the sites visited, run into thousands of people, mostly the youth. Those working on the hostel project at the University of Ghana alone were almost 2,000 together with about 700 engaged to work on the Presidential Palace.
The Finance Minister, who was in the company of some officials from his ministry, toured the five-storey Presidential Palace where Mr S. K. Singh, the Project Manager of Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Limited, the contractors working on the project, took him round.
Apart from offices and residences that were being given finishing touches during the visit, the palace has a banquet hall, a press briefing room and a general service centre that contains a clinic, a restaurant, shops and a fire post.
At the time of the visit, workers of an Accra-based furniture company, Pee Wood Limited, were seen conveying furniture into the office complex.
Mr Baah-Wiredu also inspected rehabilitation work within the old Flag Staff House, which was occupied by the first President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
At the Airport City where most of the buildings were said to be first-class hotels and commercial centres, the minister and his team were fascinated by the kind of modern structures being put up.
One particular structure (Telecom Emporium), which is being constructed through funding from various investors including Ghana Telecom and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), is expected to have 11 floors with two underground car parks.
Briefing the minister during the inspection tour on the University of Ghana campus, the Project Manager of Adanko Contractors Limited, Mr Larry Djangmah, said unlike in previous times, Ghanaian construction companies were currently being offered big contract works, which was good for the local construction industry.
He expressed the hope that the hostel project would be completed by early next year to enable the various banks that assisted the University of Ghana financially toward the project to get back their money, adding that the hostels would be rented out to students.
Mr Djangmah said the main purpose of the project was to ease accommodation problems on campus but added that other facilities such as swimming pool and tennis court would be provided.
At all the sites, Mr Baah-Wiredu took the opportunity to advise the workers to work hard to earn a decent living.