Housing: a planning strategy for regional development in Ghana

The absence of comprehensive housing and labor planning have contributed ranch to the mass migration to and the centralization of population and economic activities in, the Southern Rag ions of Ghana. This concentration has generated social problems often associated with urbanization, such as housing, over- and under-population, and the high cost of providing social service. Because this migration has been permitted to go uncontrolled, predominantly agricultural regions of the North, Central, Togoland, and Brong-Ahafo lay unbilled. Poverty, destitution, high rates of illiteracy, homelessness, and joblessness characterize the subject regions# The migrants, whose prima objective is a search for high incomes in the Southern Regions, do not fully participate in the urban economy of the South because they lack the preparation for urban life. Due to their constant migration, they are viewed at the national economic level as an undependable labor force. It Is necessary to stimulate and stabilize self-sustaining economic activities in the aforementioned regions for the purpose of dispersing, retaining, and mobilizing the labor force. This objective could be achieved by the use of a national housing program to attract certain occupational groups and/or labor in certain strategic industries„ whose productivity would enhance each region's economy, to relocate and support the regions.