Saglemi: Sale Of Housing Project To Private Developer Gets Support Of GREDA

• The planned sale of the Saglemi Housing Project has gotten the backing of influential real estate association GREDA
• The Ghana Real Estates Developers Association said the move by the government would end years of neglect
• The 1,500 unit affordable housing project has been dogged by allegations of deliberate neglect under the Nana Akufo-Addo-led administration

The real estate community seems excited about the decision by the government to hand over the grand-but-abandoned Saglemi Housing Project to a private developer.

Minister of works and housing Francis Asenso Boakye disclosed during a meeting with the press on Sunday, November 13, 2022 that government is cash-strapped and won’t be able to make further financial commitments to the project.

“We’re allowing for a private sector developer to take up the initiative to build and sell the housing units,” he said.

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Although the announcement has been criticised by a section of the public, the Ghana Real Estate Development Association (GREDA) has said the move would prevent the mammoth housing project from wasting away.

GREDA executive secretary Samuel Amegayibor said the move by the government clearly shows commitment to put the 1,500 housing unit to good use after many years of seeming neglect.

“Government has committed a lot of funds to the project and they don’t want to incur any other cost again and want to dispose of it by selling it to a private investor; I think it is a good call.

“At least it would bring us to a point for us to transform it into a usable project,” he said.

Amegayibor urged the government to take a closer look at the project and investigate the thinking that went into the decision if the initiators of the project to cite it on the outskirts of the main business districts.

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"This calls for a whole assessment, apart from the project itself going to be sold, one has to find out the assessment that was made for the project to be cited at that place,” he said.

The one-of-its-kind project was approved by Parliament on October 31, 2012 after the consideration of a Report of the Joint Committee on Finance and Works and Housing on the project’s associated loan agreement.

Ghana obtained $200 million credit facility from Credit Suisse International for the construction of the affordable housing units by Construtora OAS Limited.

The deal was for the construction of 5,000 affordable housing units when it was first sent to parliament but was later reduced to 1,500.

The completed project has been dogged with controversy under the current Nana Akufo-Addo administration.

Akufo-Addo Outdoors Ghana’s National Energy Transition Framework At COP27

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has reported in a separate story that Ghana is committed to upholdthe principles of the Paris Agreement.

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Akufo-Addo has said Ghana is exploring options to include hydrogen gas and other clean energy in the country's energy mix.

The president said these when he presented Ghana’s framework on energy transition at a high-level event organised by Bloomberg Philanthropies on Sustainable Energy for All at COP27 in Egypt.

Source: YEN.com.gh