Ghana Post to venture into real estate business

The Ghana Post Company Limited (GPCL) is to partner real estate developers in a public-private partnership agreement to build houses for commercial purposes.

The post company intends using its tracts of land across the country as equity in the partnership business in a bid to rake in more revenue for the company.

At a press conference in Accra, the Head of Estates at the GPCL, Mr. Charles Asiedu, said the company, in collaboration with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), would in the coming days demolish illegal structures on its 92 acres of land at Darkuman, a suburb of Accra, to pave way for the project to take off.

“That is not supposed to mean that we are deviating from our core mandate but a measure to generate more funds to support our core mandate,” Mr. Asiedu said.

He said “the company’s lands across the country have been hugely encroached on and we would not leave no stone unturned to redeem them”.

Some of the properties identified to have been encroached on, according to Mr. Asiedu, included a large portion of land at Lashibi in the Tema metropolis and an 853-acre land which is “95 percent encroached” at Adenta in the Greater Accra Region.

With emphasis on the Darkuman land, Mr. Asiedu noted that “We have been in talks with the squatters since 2007 and when the time came for them to vacate the land early this year, they sued the company frustrating our resolve to clear the land of illegal residents but we have won the case”.

“We’ve had discussions with the AMA and anytime from now, it will begin demolishing the structures for us to have our land back”, he revealed.

He appealed to the Lands Commission to regularise lands for government entities to stop the encroachment that government entities have seen over the years.

After the press conference, Mr. Asiedu led the journalists to the Darkuman site where the land was largely encroached on by mechanic shops, churches, drinking spots, a cattle ranch, a filling station, public places of convenience and wooden structures.