GREDA dismisses Govt Claim

Accra, Nov. 4, GNA – Contrary to a statement by the government that there is a boom in the housing sector, the Ghana Real Estates Developers Association (GREDA) on Tuesday said there is rather a huge deficit in the sector.

Dr Alexander B. Tweneboa, President of GREDA, announced during an encounter between the private sector institutions and some political parties that “the deficit in the housing sector has increased from 500,000 last year to 750,000 this year”.

“Those who claim that there is a boom in the housing sector must be getting their figures from the wrong sources, but as far as we are concerned between last year and this year the deficit has increased,” he said.

The forum was jointly organized by the Private Enterprises Foundation (PEF) and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) to discuss the plans of political parties for the period 2009-2012.

It was attended by two out of five political parties invited – Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The parties which did not show up were the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Convention People’s Party (PNC) and the People’s National Convention (PNC).

Dr Tweneboa noted that over the period under consideration, most of the houses constructed were not affordable to average Ghanaians and just a few people at the “top level” could afford to buy or rent houses.

He cited high interest rates on loans for construction, high cost of land, the challenges in land acquisition and influx of foreign developers into the local industry as causes of the high cost of houses and rent charges.

The GREDA President therefore urged the new government that would be sworn into office in January 2009 to make housing finance a priority in order to deal sufficiently with the existing and rising deficit in the sector.

Mr Osei Boey-Ocansey, Director-General of PEF, urged politicians to contact the right industry places for the correct facts and figures in order to do proper analysis and projects for the future and claims about the present and past.

“Because most politicians do not come to those of us in the private sector for the accurate figure they usually end doing wrong analysis and consequently unrealistic projects which are usually unachievable,” he said.

Mr Boey-Ocansey assured the political parties of a cordial gesture from the private sector, saying that PEF and its members were willing to maintain a good working relationship with any party which won the December elections.

Nana Amo, President of the Licensed Cocoa Buyers Association (CBA), complained of marginalization by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOB) in the distribution of bonuses to industry players and in decision-making.

He noted that whenever there were bonuses to be distributed, COCOBOB only gave the money to the farmers and left out the buyers who actually worked with the farmers, bought the produce at the farm gate and offered them technical training in some cases.

“Meanwhile whenever there is a hitch in terms of export of cocoa, COCOBOD conveniently blames us,” he said

Nana Amo explained that due to the small warehouse space at the Takoradi Harbour, trucks of cocoa got stuck at the port and COCOBOD blamed the buyers for putting pressure on them.

He said the buyers had a contract to bring two trucks of cocoa each day to the port for export and it was the duty of the government to expand the storage facility at the port but it had not done so.

“Previously when we used to produce 350,000 tonnes of cocoa the warehousing space at the port was sufficient but now we produce 650,000 tonnes and they expect the same warehousing space to cater for the increase.”

Nana Amo also noted that previously COCOBOB used to close the cocoa season for a month to give the buyers time to organize themselves, in terms of accessing credit, improving infrastructure and hiring staff, among other things, in preparation for the new season.

“But now the season is closed for only one week without consulting the buyers and they expect us to do all the necessary preparations including getting banks to give us loans, buy new equipment and all within that limited period,” he said.

He said the buyers would expect the incoming government to reconsider the relationship between the buyers and COCOBOB to ensure that the marginalization ceased.

A representative of the Consumers’ Association called on the incoming government to make a provision for contractors who suffered damages due to delays by the public sector interventions to be compensated.

Mr Emmanuel Akoto, from the National Association of Small-Scale Industries (NASSI), noted that there was an Association of Unemployed Graduates (AUG) in the market due to the influx of university and polytechnic graduates who did not have jobs.

He therefore urged politicians to have pragmatic programmes to integrate the many graduates through support for the private sector to create jobs.

Other players from the private sector raised questions and concerns about capital flight, marginalization of SMEs at the grassroots level, importation of fake electronic spare parts, need to develop tourist sites and the need for a national productivity framework, among other things.