Ghana Real Estate Developers Association, told the media recently that the stubborn attitude of cement producers in the country to refuse to cut prices is putting increasing pressure on real estate developers and potential buyers. "Cement producers are greedy and unfair to the system," he said in blunt criticism. The core contradiction of the
problem is that although Ghana's currency, the cedi, has continued to appreciate since mid-2025 and has now risen to about 11.71: 1 against the US dollar, the price of cement has remained high and even risen for a time. "Let's say a developer prices a property at $100,000 when the exchange rate is 16 or 17 cedis to the dollar," Armegabot explains. Today, the exchange rate has risen to about 12 cedis to the dollar, and the equivalent amount of cedis received by developers has shrunk dramatically, but the price of key building materials has not changed.
This high cost is eventually passed on to consumers, seriously affecting people's ability to buy houses and pushing up rental prices. Blaming the high cost of building materials for the widening housing deficit, Mr Ameguebo stressed that many people could no longer afford to buy their own homes and quoted one developer as saying: "Business has been exceptionally poor this year." He therefore called on cement manufacturers to "live up to their conscience and be fair to the system", and reminded each other that developers had given understanding in difficult times, and that now the situation is improving, manufacturers should make the right choice.
Ghana currently has a housing deficit of about 2 million dwellings, which is the highest in West Africa. The high cost of cement is a major contributing factor to homelessness and the spread of predominantly wooden slums in urban areas, posing a threat to life and property. As prices continue to soar, Ameguebo warns that the completion time of the project will be greatly extended and the cost will increase significantly, which will eventually seriously affect the number of houses that can be completed and delivered.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, there are a large number of unfinished buildings across the country in 2023, and these figures clearly reveal the staggering impact of high construction costs on the country's infrastructure development and living standards. It is worth noting that since the appreciation of Saidi in 2025, the prices of other building materials, including steel bars, anti-theft doors and pipeline materials, have been lowered, but the price of cement has been strong against the trend.
Historical data show that cement prices in Ghana have never experienced a downward adjustment, although cement prices are extremely sensitive to foreign exchange fluctuations and will rise rapidly once the Cedi depreciates slightly. Producers often attribute the increase to the cost of imported clinker. Prices have continued to climb from 8.5 cedis per bag in 2008 to 110 to 118 cedis per bag after the devaluation of cedis in June 2024.
To curb arbitrary, disproportionate and "greed-driven" pricing, Ghana passed legislation in November 2023 requiring manufacturers to publish ex-factory prices to promote pricing transparency. In addition, two major domestic cement producers have adopted new technologies for local raw materials that can replace clinker, aiming to reduce dependence on imported clinker and production costs, but this has not led to price reduction.
Further investigation revealed that Heidelberg Materials controlled both major producers, raising questions about whether the market had been monopolized, undermining transparency in cement pricing across the country. In the view of developers, sustained high prices seem to be driven more by "greed" than actual production or import costs, which raises serious doubts about the effectiveness of the existing regulatory framework.
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