Saglemi Housing: Government working to secure private developer within five weeks – Oppong Nkrumah

Minister of Works and Housing, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said government is working to secure international private partners to help complete the Saglemi Housing project.

According to the sector minister, a technical working group has been given five weeks to find an international expression of interest designed to attract private developers that will complete the project.

Speaking with the media after an inspection of the abandoned housing site, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said “…I gave instructions to the technical working group that within the next five weeks, it should go ahead with an international expression of interest that is designed to attract private developers who can come in and complete this project for us so that we can put it to use.”

Meanwhile, the comments by the Housing Minister has since been rejected by the Minority in Parliament who allege that government only plans to offload the housing project to its allies and cronies.

According to Ranking Member on the Works and Housing Committee, Vincent Oppong Asamoah said government is simply hiding behind these international partners with plans to only sell off the state property.

“The only thing is that they just want to reduce the price and then they will sell it to their cronies. They are saying, oh, we are bringing in partners here and at the end of it, it is their people that are going to come in. If you go out there, all state lands and every property is going for sale under the New Patriotic Party administration. Every property, landed property, is going for sale. Let’s see the end of the NPP administration and we will see the rot,” Oppong Asamoah claimed.

The Saglemi Housing project was initiated in 2012 under the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama government for the delivery of 5,000 housing units at a total cost of US$200 million under an Engineering-Procurement-Contracting (EPC) Agreement with Messrs Construtora OAS Ghana Limited.

According to the government, by the end of the stipulated project execution period, only 1,506 out of the planned 5,000 housing units had been initiated and approximately US$196 million representing 98% of total project funds has been expended.

MA/

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