Mahama urges Caribbean Ghanaians to use 15- to 20-year housing mortgage
Written on
President John Dramani Mahama told Ghanaians in Antigua and Barbuda that his government is building a housing mortgage repayable over 15 to 20 years that will include the diaspora, but named no rate, bank or application route.
President John Dramani Mahama has urged Ghanaians living in the Caribbean to buy homes through a government-backed housing mortgage that would let buyers pay over 15 to 20 years, saying the diaspora would be included in the arrangement. He spoke in St John's, Antigua and Barbuda, on the sidelines of the 2026 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where he addressed the Ghanaian community, according to the Information Services Department.
Housing, he said, was one of the main items his administration had begun working on. “We are doing a mortgage of $1 billion. I announced one billion Ghana Cedis so that people who want to own houses can get a mortgage for 15 or 20 years,” Mahama said. He used a dollar figure and a cedi figure in the same answer and did not say which sum the scheme would lend, or whether one represented the state's contribution and the other the size of the fund.
The president framed the mortgage as a formal channel for Ghanaians abroad, telling the gathering that buyers would no longer need to send cash to relatives to build or buy on their behalf. “When we do this, we will involve the diaspora and everybody, so that you do not have to send money to ‘Wofa.’ You send money through a more legal route that will enable you to own a house and become a homeowner,” he said. He also said remittances should be directed into investments that would still be there when migrants return.
The announcement follows earlier housing-finance commitments. In May, at Dedesua in the Bosomtwe District, Mahama announced a GH¢3 billion revolving fund for state developers to build homes, with banks offering workers mortgages over 15 to 20 years, aimed at nurses, teachers, doctors and other public servants. At the National Conference on Housing Finance in October, the Presidency said he had directed the Minister of Finance to place GH¢1 billion in the 2027 Budget as the government's share of the fund, and National Housing Fund chief executive Prosper Hoetu said the fund had resumed lending under its National Mortgage Scheme at 8.4 per cent, down from 13.5 per cent.
In St John's, however, the president named no bank, state agency or interest rate, and gave no deposit requirement, income test or application point. He set no start date and no closing date, and did not say whether the mortgage he described to the diaspora is the National Mortgage Scheme or whether the 8.4 per cent rate would apply to buyers living abroad. The remarks therefore leave the scheme's size, eligibility and timing unresolved.
Ghana's housing market has drawn successive state interventions in 2026, from budget allocations to the National Housing Fund to police housing and affordable-housing pledges, as developers and diaspora buyers press for longer-tenor finance in an environment where commercial mortgage rates have historically been high.