About National Homeownership Fund

National Homeownership Fund - Background

As part of the financial sector policy initiatives stated in the 2018 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, Government approved the National Mortgage and Housing Finance Initiative (NMHFI) to address demand-side challenges in the housing market in Ghana as a key pillar of its Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda.

To operationalize this policy, the Ministry of Finance established the National Homeownership Fund, NHF (formerly, National Housing and Mortgage Fund, NHMF). The Fund between 2018 and 2020 piloted two schemes:

 1. National Mortgage Scheme (NMS)
 2. Affordable Housing Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)

During the pilot phase of the National Mortgage Scheme, the NHF partnered  with three (3) local banks; GCB Bank Ltd, Stanbic Bank Ltd and Republic Bank Ltd, to underwrite local currency mortgages to Public Sector workers and provide construction finance to developers.

In the case of the Affordable Housing REITs (Rent-to-own) Scheme, which was set up as a partnership between the NHF and GCB Securities, several houses were purchased from developers and leased under a Rent-to-own Scheme to Public Sector workers who were given the option to purchase them outright at a predetermined price in the future.

Given the overall success of the pilot phase, the National Homeownership Fund is initiating steps to scale-up the schemes to cover both public and private sector workers across Ghana. This goal is to enable all qualifying Ghanaians in both the public and private sectors to have access to decent and affordable housing at affordable mortgage rates from the banks.