NPP administration performed poorly in terms of housing delivery-Minister

The Kufuor Administration has been criticized for performing poorly in terms of provision of houses for middle and low income earners.

Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing also disapproved of the alleged concentration of the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime on the selling of State houses including ministerial bungalows and Ghana Airways property to party members and cronies.

The Minister was addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday in reaction to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo’s alleged misleading statement he made during the Institute of Economic Affair’s Presidential Debate held in Tamale on October 30 in regard to housing.

Mr Mensah said Nana Addo’s claim that the National Democratic Congress had abandoned the affordable housing units the NPP started was false.

He blamed Nana Addo’s advisors for ill-informing him on the issue, stressing that “By making him quote 6,000 housing units instead of 4,720, they made him appear not to even know the total housing stock started by his own government,” he said.

Mr Mensah said currently, six different projects are being implemented by the Government to deliver a total of 20,368 housing units.

He said 168 housing units are being built in Tema for the Bureau of National Investigations, 5,000 Housing units at Kpone and 10,000 housing units at Amasaman.

The rest are 200 housing units, 5,000 housing units and the completion of 4,720 affordable housing units.

Mr Mensah said four projects are before parliament waiting for consent.

He said the projects would deliver 2,008 housing units for the security agencies and 9,120 housing units for public servants and other members of the public.

Mr Mensah called on the media to visit the projects sites to ascertain works being done.

He expressed dissatisfaction that none of the 4,720 housing units started by the NPP for the eight years they were in government was completed.

Mr Mensah said the projects were made up of 1,896 one-bedroom and 2,824 two-bedroom units.

“The stages of completion of these flats when we took office were as follows: Bortey-man, Nungua; 62 per cent completed, Kpone; 55 per cent completed, Asokore-Mampong; 61 per cent completed, Koforidua; 25 per cent completed, Tamale; 29 per cent completed and Wa; 7 per cent completed.”

Mr Mensah said currently, Ghana Armed Forces had been allocated 48 units at Borteyman to be completed while the State Housing Company is pre-financing the completion of 48 units at the Borteyman site.

“Tema Development Corporation has proposed to purchase and complete 110 of the one bedroom units and 248 of two-bedroom at the Kpone Affordable site.

“Messrs DSC Infrastructure after further discussions has agreed to revise their proposal on the basis of Public, Private Partnerships. They are pursuing the option of using a local financial institution as an off-taker for the units they intend to complete,” he said.

Mr Mensah added that the Ministry advertised the sale of the units and the response had been overwhelming.

“It is therefore untrue that the project had been abandoned,” he added.

Mr Mensah used the occasion to commiserate with the families who lost their loved ones in the collapsed Achimota Melcom Shopping Mall which occurred on Wednesday November 7.

“Our prayers and thoughts are with the bereaved, injured and their families at this trying moment,” he said.

So far 78 have been rescued while nine others have been confirmed dead.

The Minister said the tragedy had reinforced Government’s desire to bring into effect the Ghana Building Code which had been finalized to be presented to cabinet.