Finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has revealed that between February and October this year, government has disbursed some GHC13.8 million to cover the rent advance payment of some Ghanaians.

According to him, the payments were made to help Ghanaians who are unable to rent homes due to its expensive nature of owning homes to do so.

“Government rolled out the National Rental Assistance Scheme in February 2023 to ease the burden of huge rent advance payments by prospective tenants. From February to October 2023, the Scheme disbursed about GH¢13.8million to cover the payment of rent advance for 1,105 individuals in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Northern, Eastern, Bono East and Western Regions.”
Ken Ofori-Atta

Speaking during the budget presentation on the sectoral performance of the housing sector, Mr Ofori-Atta emphasized government’s continued works on Phase III of the Security Services Housing Programme. This, he noted, involves the construction of 320 units for the Ghana Police Service at the Ghana National Police Training School, Tesano.

“The overall progress of work stands at 95 percent. In addition, work commenced on the first phase of the Revised National Affordable Housing Programme at Pokuase, to construct 8,000 housing units. In 2024, Government will commence work on the National Affordable Housing Project at Dedesua in the Ashanti Region.”
Ken Ofori-Atta

GIADEC completes Mineral Resource Estimate report

On the mining industry, Mr Ofori-Atta revealed that Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC), through their strategic partners, has completed the Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) Report that has been prepared in line with Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) standards.

He noted that the results of the report indicate significant bauxite quantities making the project a commercially viable one.

In 2024, the finance minister expressed that the corporation along with their partners will undertake the drilling and MRE for Project 3 and commence Valco retrofit and Project 2 mine development.

“… The Ghana Integrated Iron & Steel Development Corporation (GIISDEC) has completed a strategic conceptual layout to guide growth, promotion, and development of the integrated iron and the steel industry. The Master plan has been reviewed and given a seal of approval by KPMG and ready for the industry.”
Ken Ofori-Atta

Furthermore, Mr Ofori-Atta elaborated that to ensure that various mineral discoveries and inferred deposits of iron ore are commercially viable, a high-level Mineral Resource study has been commissioned by GIISDEC working with its Private Partners.

He explained that this capital-intensive activity has been offloaded to Ghanaian Private Partners to produce a standard Bankable report at no cost to Government of Ghana.

“This is to ensure that the Integrated Iron and Steel Industry (IISI) is not faced with the continuous decline of domestic production and processing of metallic minerals and the associated dependence on foreign supplies for our needs.”
Ken Ofori-Atta

On plans to enable growth, Mr Ofori-Atta stated that key interventions to improve the business environment include enacting the Business Regulatory Reform Bill to enhance the quality and transparency of regulatory administration and establish a predictable regulatory environment.

Also, he noted that crowding-in private sector financing of $20 billion through Foreign Direct Investments and enhanced Public-Private dialogues and Partnerships as well a more coordinated and aggressive promotion of Foreign Direct Investments has been carried out by government.