Do not to sacrifice quality work for profit- E.T Mensah

Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, E.T Mensah has advised private estate developers not to sacrifice quality and integrity, in their bid to maximize their gains.

“Some estate developers are known to have charged their clients over housing units they never offered, whilst others have fallen out with clients because of unsatisfactory work,” he said.

Mr E.T. Mensah said this on Friday, when he launched Meridian Gardens, an 85-acre site at Klagon, Accra, owned by RSS Developers Ltd, for the development of a fully-serviced, gated community, comprising a mix of two bedroom and three bedroom apartments.

The Minister noted that Ghana faced a “huge” housing shortfall of one million, five-hundred housing units. He said the national housing policy, sought to provide quality housing with the private sector as the driving force and government, the facilitator.

“The cost of building in Ghana is of great concern to government. The government thus continues to encourage the formation of public/private sector partnerships, to setting up of local industries for the manufacture of building materials, and to influence the imposition of taxes and duties on materials and other resources, intended for use in building.”

He said “the Government and my Ministry, have been active proponents in the Ghana Land Administrative Project (LAP), for which we are receiving funding from the World Bank”.

Mr E.T. Mensah said the LAP sought to harmonise and simplify the various processes involved in the acquisition of land and expressed the hope that “on completion of LAP, the current nightmare of perfecting land title will be a thing of the past”.

Mr Emmanuel Botchwey, Executive Chairman of Regimanuel Gray Ltd, a partner in the venture, assured the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), their other partner, that they would do their best to ensure the success of the venture.

“I wish to assure our partners SSNIT, and all those for whom Meridian Gardens will become a home that, Regimanuel Gray will deliver a product which will reflect honour on our efforts,” he said.

Dr Frank Odoom, Director General of SSNIT, said RSS needed the support of stake-holders such as financial institutions, land owners among others, for a secure and successful venture.**