Prefabricated housing, a solution for Ghana's housing shortage

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa has been experiencing phenomenal population growth since the beginning of the 20th Century, following several centuries of population stagnation attributable to the slave trade and colonization. The region's population in fact increased from 100 million in 1900 to 770 million in 2005. The latest United Nations projections, published in March 2007, envisaged a figure of 1.5 to 2 billion inhabitants being reached between the present and 2050 (CEPED, 2008). The growth in population poses a lot of challenges for Governments of these countries, not the least is housing the masses. Some governments have explored industrialized building systems (IBS) -- PREFAB HOUSES to address the housing shortage. The social and economic factors in these countries have impeded the success of these housing initiatives. In 1952 the then Gold Coast government explored the possibility of employing industrialized Building Systems (IBS) -- PREFAB HOUSES to relieve the housing shortage in the country, then a British colony. The government engaged Messrs. N. V. Schokbeton of Kampen, Holland as consultant of the project and producers of the Prefab houses. The program was abandoned on the recommendation of the United Nations Technical Assistance Mission on Housing to Ghana. This essence of this paper is to reviews the UN report to the government of Gold Coast to learn why the project failed and what might be done to make such a project successful in the 21st century . This paper uses case studies to show countries that have successfully and unsuccessfully employed Industrialized Building Systems (IBS) -- PREFAB HOUSES to address housing shortage. Finally, this paper employs a survey to gauge the interest - the willingness of the middle income Ghanaian to adopt prefab houses as dwelling units.