Frank Aboagye Danyansah, Ashanti Region Secretary of the Ghana Real Estates Development Agency (GREDA), has called on government to modify the Affordable Housing Project at Asokore Mampong in the Ashanti Region into hostel facilities.
According to him, the move will help solve the accommodation challenge experienced by students at the Kumasi-based tertiary institution.
Mr Danyansah’s comments follow agitations by students from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) who have described hostel prices as excessive due to high demand of private hostel facilities.
“We have the Asokore Mampong Affordable Housing now going to waste. SSNIT took 500, and out of the 500, they have completed 150 which they have given out. The remaining 350 is still there”.
Currently, the overall number of housing units is 1,053, which comprises of twenty six shops, and 1,027 serves as residential units.
Mr Danyansah further explained that because some eight hundred and fifty of the units have been lying fallow, it should be given as accommodation to students.
“Let us modify these ones into hostels, and if we’re doing 4 in a room, these 850 units can provide 4,000 students with accommodation.
“Since Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II is the Chancellor of KNUST, and this affordable housing has been named after him, my suggestion is that we should convert the affordable housing at Asokore Mampong into student hostels for KNUST.
“If we can, why are our leaders sitting there and students are arguing with private developers?”
KNUST management interventions
Following the venting by students of KNUST, the school’s management has assured them of a possible reduction. This, they explained, will be done in consultation with the private developers.
That notwithstanding, Mr Danyansa noted that the school management must also be proactive by investing in accommodation for students. Also, he suggested that they can alternatively provide certain reliefs for private developers within its “Build-Operate-Transfer” arrangement.
Justifying his assertion, Mr Danyansah further revealed that until a solution is found, the high hostel charges would remain the same.
“KNUST has about 81,000 student population; last year alone, they admitted 30,000 out of the whole Ghana’s 90,000 who applied for university.
“I am a private developer, I have my hostels there, I want returns on my investments, and so you don’t tell me to have a cap on the ceiling of how much I price; no. So what you have to do, is to expand the number of facilities within your campus and make it cheaper”.
Asokore Mampong Affordable Housing
In November last year, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo inaugurated the Affordable Housing Project at Asokore-Mampong in the Ashanti Region.
Christened the Otumfuo Osei Tutu Housing Estates after the Asantehene, the 1,021 housing units commenced thirteen years ago. However, government in partnership with the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) sought to complete it.
The Housing project wasn’t primarily intended to address the country’s housing challenge but to as well serve as an investment asset for the scheme.
The Affordable Housing Project is intended to provide accommodation for low and middle-income workers, and build the capacity of local contractors, among others.
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