Funds shortage slows down affordable housing project

The Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing, Abubakar Saddique Boniface has attributed the slow pace of work on the Affordable Housing Project to financial constraints on the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) fund. He said the Ministry is therefore, trying to secure an additional GH¢108m from other sources in the financial market to speed up the project.

Speaking at a meeting with consultants and contractors of the project in Accra, Mr. Boniface described as misconception, some media reports that the Ministry had refused to provide the needed funds for the project resulting in most contractors abandoning the sites.He said the ministry would, in no way hoard the funds but rather it is the time-bound nature of the HIPC Fund and how the budgetary system operate is what is affecting the disbursement of the funds.

Mr Boniface explained that the ministry has not been given the exact budgetary allocation for the project and as such was overstretched to use the funds available to execute the projects. He therefore called for the cooperation of all contractors the ministry worked to pool resources to fund the project.

Mr. Boniface said more than GH¢40 million have been spent on the project so far at Borteyman; Kpong; Asokore Mampong; Koforidua and Tamale and hinted that the Government had provided two point five million Ghana cedis for payment to the contractors and would be released to them as soon as possible. The contractors called for a revision of conditions and terms of the project to save them from investing at a loss. According to them, supply of building materials is often delayed and the requirements for top quality building materials are not commensurate with the affordability concept of the project.