The price of building materials have spiked over the past five months
•The Construction Chamber is warning of a price hike in rent should the unusual trend of pricing for building materials continue to increase
•The Chamber says government needs to come up with workable solutions to address this immediately
•The price of building materials have spiked over the past five months of this year
The unusual price hikes of building materials are likely to affect the cost of rent in the country should a solution not be found soon; the Ghana Chamber of Construction has cautioned.
Already, some members of Parliament have expressed worry over the cost of building materials with the House set to probe and come up with an attainable solution to the price hikes.
But the chief executive of the Chamber, Emmanuel Cherry, is calling for a swift and much intentional approach to addressing the issue and subsequently, implementation of solutions in government’s budget.
In an interaction with monitored by GhanaWeb, Cherry said the unusual price hikes over the past five months this year is adversely having an impact on contractors undertaking building projects.
“A time is coming, if government is not careful, building cost is going to be so alarming that a kilometer of road is going to be expensive. Even as we speak, automatically, all contractors who have abandoned site if they are moving back, their contracts might have to be reviewed upwards, which will impact government’s budget. So, let’s all come together to resolve the problem before it gets out of hand,” Cherry stressed.
The Chamber however said it has taken note of the issue raised in Parliament by the former Deputy Minister of Finance, Kwaku Kwarteng and is hopeful the appropriate body of the House will adequately address the issue.
“Honestly speaking, we have taken a key interest in the issue, that’s the reason we took the pains to petition parliament. So, we welcome the call by the former Deputy Minister of Finance. The time to correct the development is now. There is no better time than now to take steps to save this country. Because a time is coming if we are not careful you cannot rent or buy a house because of this challenge,” Emmanuel Cherry said.