The Ghana Institution of Engineers (GhIE) has had enough of buildings falling down and the usual excuses that follow. After a three-storey building collapsed at Accra's North Industrial Area, killing three people, the engineers are pointing fingers — not at the rain, but at the people and systems supposed to keep construction safe.

Speaking on June 10, Ing. Joshua Allotey, Chair of the GhIE's Structures Sub-Division, said the problem isn't environmental. “In some cases, we observed what is commonly referred to as ‘pancake collapse,’ where a floor fails subsequently under its own weight and lands on the next floor,” he explained. That kind of failure doesn't happen because of a little rain. It happens because the building was poorly designed, poorly supervised, or both.

The GhIE's preliminary assessments found multiple human failures: unauthorised structural modifications, changes in how buildings are used, and unqualified persons doing key construction jobs. Developers often start building before getting permits, and some even act as their own project managers, hiring artisans instead of licensed engineers and architects.

Ing. Allotey also called out the regulators. “At the same time, enforcement by some state institutions remains weak, with insufficient inspection and delayed responses to violations,” he said. Even when stop-work orders are issued, they are often ignored with no consequences.

The engineers are clear: rain, rising groundwater, and strong winds aren't the cause of collapses. Those are triggers that expose pre-existing weaknesses — especially in foundations that were never designed for the site's actual conditions.

To fix this, the GhIE is pushing for urgent reforms. Their top demand: mandatory stage-by-stage inspections of building projects, so every phase is checked before the next one begins. They also want a formal certification system for artisans in the construction sector, so the people doing the actual work have proven they know what they're doing.

“In some cases, we observed what is commonly referred to as ‘pancake collapse,’ where a floor fails subsequently under its own weight and lands on the next floor.” — Ing. Joshua Allotey

Building collapses aren't new in Ghana. In 2024, a similar incident in the same area killed several people. But the GhIE is insisting that the country stop treating collapses as inevitable. They say building safety is a shared responsibility between developers and the state — and right now, both sides are failing.

If the GhIE's proposals are adopted, every new building in Ghana could face mandatory checks at key stages: foundation, framing, electrical, plumbing, and final completion. That would mean fewer shortcuts, fewer untrained workers calling themselves engineers, and — hopefully — fewer families mourning loved ones crushed by buildings that should never have been built.