SuCasa Properties, a leading real estate company in Ghana, is positioning itself to create at least 2,000 jobs for Ghanaian youth to support efforts to reduce unemployment in the country.
The company, on Friday, held a conference to train hundreds of Ghanaian youths on opportunities in the real estate value chain, while offering them the prospect to be employed as salespersons with Sucasa.
SuCasa Properties also aims at helping bridge the housing deficit of about two million housing units in Ghana with its modern townhouses of two-, three- and four-bedroom units, which ranges from US$40,000 to US$80,000.
The affordable housing projects are at East Legon Hills, Ayi Mensah, Pokuase, and Appolonia, with plans to extend the property offerings to Kumasi and Takoradi.
Speaking at the event, CEO of SuCasa Properties, Michael O’Grantson-Agyapong, said the conference was to make known the many opportunities in the real estate value chain and help the Ghanaian youth tap into them.
He said: “This is a job creation opportunity that we are giving to the youth and through this scheme, we’re looking forward to creating about 2,000 jobs per a year for the energetic and readily available youth who wants to take advantage of the system.”
He said, with right regulatory framework and Public-Private Partnership (PPP), the real estate sector would be a “game changer” in the Ghanaian economy.
The sector contributed 2.9 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2020, translating into GHS11 billion (US$1.9 bn), with a labour force of more than 320,000 people.
Figures from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), shows that the performance of the sector to GDP stood at 10.5 per cent of the overall performance of the real GDP growth for the period of 2021 ending.
Speaking on the potentials of the sector, Mr Awuku-Asare said: “If we open the supply chain mechanism such that at every point somebody can tap into it judiciously and appropriately, this project is strategically positioned to augment government’s agenda in trying to remedy the unemployment situation in the country.”
Mr. Samuel Amegayibor, Executive Secretary, Ghana Real Estate Developers’ Association (GREDA), lauded the initiative of SuCasa, which he said would complement various efforts to reduce unemployment in Ghana.
He said: “The real estate industry is so big that apart from the clerical and professional services in the built environment, there is marketing and other opportunities in the value chain, which the youth must open their eyes to.”
Mr. Louis Yaw Afful, Group Executive Director, African Continental Free Trade Area Policy Network (APN), also urged the youth to build their abilities in the real estate value chain, which he said would create sustainable income earning opportunities for them.
He called on other sectors of the economy to use conferences that provided the platform to connect skills and capabilities of the youth to opportunities, noting that it would drastically reduce unemployment in Ghana.
He said: “There are so many sectors in the economy and if all of them should use this conference approach and invite the youth, we’ll be able to harmonise their skills and they will pitch very well, and we’ll see unemployment declining.”