It brings together the Association Road Contractors, Ghana Real Estate Developers Association, Ghana Electrical Contractors Association, Artisans Association of Ghana, Progressive Road Contractors Association, Ghana Electronic Security and Safety Association and Ghana Plumbers Association.

Mr. Proper Yao Ledi, Chairman of the Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana (ABCECG), which through the BUSAC Fund support, set up the new body, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the goal was to ensure that best practices were upheld.

 He added that the absence until now, of such a unified body, made it difficult to enforce quality standards. "Before our advocacy action, the divisions among members within the built environment resulted in poor standards and low capacity development within the industry, thus making the industry uncompetitive - retarding the growth of the industry.”

He applauded BUSAC Fund and its development partners, Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European Union (EU) for the advocacy support.

Mr. Ledi announced that the Construction Industry Development Authority (CIDA) Bill to give the needed legal backing to the FCC would soon be sent to Parliament. He said this would help to significantly enhance the quality of work done by contractors and draw a line under the chapter of poor job execution.

The proposed Authority would focus on construction business development (process), construction technology (tools) and construction manpower development.  Mr. Harry Anim-Danso, Second Vice Chairman of the ABCECG, said they were moving to a point where no one could build without engaging the services of a professional mason, plumber, electrician, architect and other people with the requisite skills.

Despite their professional skills, many construction professionals, he noted, lacked the capacity to effectively implement projects to meet client’s satisfaction and for profitability. To address this, the association sought Business Development Services (BDS) support from the BUSAC Fund, in September, last year, to provide capacity building training for them.

Beneficiaries of the training programme were taken through integration management, scope and time management, quality and risk management as well as professional responsibility. Mr. Anim-Danso said it gave them useful insights into risk management in civil engineering projects - how to identify the sources of risk and uncertainty, determine the impact and to develop responses to mitigate the risks.