The Executive Director Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson, has disclosed that the lack of a national housing policy is responsible for the issues surrounding the Saglemi Housing project.

Speaking in an interview, he noted that, the current housing deficit can only be solved via the national housing policy.

Mr Thompson further revealed that, “none of the two governments has a collective strategy towards achieving universal access to housing for Ghanaians”.

In lieu of that, the country needs to get to the point where there will be a national policy and a national vision on housing.

“Everybody comes, and they do what they want to do disjointedly and all that. So, [we need] a policy that points to a clear-cut goal. For example, achieving universal access to housing by 2040 or reducing the housing deficit to below 5% by 2030.

“You know all these things are strategic targets and when you set these targets then you put on implementation plans. When a new government comes, they will do a new appraisal of the assets and liabilities, and they will realise that they can’t achieve that universal access to housing if they don’t build on what you left and that is where we want to get to”.

Government committed to completing Saglemi project

In spite of stakeholders’ misgivings about the completion of the housing project, government has pledged its completion.

The Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, revealed that his outfit will complete over a thousand units of the Saglemi Housing project.

He further revealed that, government will engage investors and engineers on the project. According to him, the engagement will be undertaken before government decides on a completion date for the project.

“A lot has been done but a lot more needs to be done. We have invested close to GHS200 million into this project and this is where we are. I believe the project was a great idea but the conception, the design, the implementation did not go well at all and that is why we have found ourselves in this situation. But I am committed to putting the past behind us and moving forward. So, that we can complete the project of over 1000 housing units”.

Saglemi housing project

On October 31, 2012, Parliament approved the Saglemi Housing Project. This was done after the consideration of a Report of the Joint Committee on Finance and Works and Housing on the project’s associated loan agreement.

The loan agreement of US$200,000,000 was between the government and Credit Suisse International for the construction of 5,000 affordable housing units.

At the time of the agreement, Ghana’s housing deficit was estimated to be about 1,700,000 units.

The project was expected to be completed within two years after the commencement of works.

The scope of the project was however reviewed. This reduced the number of housing units to be constructed from 5000 to 1,502 even though the price remained at US$200,000,000.

The loan was pegged at an interest rate of 12.5 percent per annum on the cedi equivalent of the dollar loan amount based on the exchange rate at the time.