Why I clashed with Nana Akufo-Addo - Samuel Atta Akyea explains

Former Minister of Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea, has opened up about how he clashed with former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over his proposals for affordable housing.

According to him, while serving as Minister of Works and Housing, he mooted the idea of having the Akufo-Addo administration build affordable houses for Ghanaians.

He said he believed that after leaving legacies in areas such as education and agriculture, the former President needed to establish a legacy in the housing sector, just as the late General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong did.

However, Atta Akyea said his proposals were opposed by then Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, who argued that undertaking such projects would increase the country’s debt burden.

The private legal practitioner said he challenged both the former President and the Finance Minister during Cabinet meetings, but his projects were not provided with the funding required for their execution.

“The Finance Minister said my ministry would swell the debt of the country. Ken Ofori-Atta, who was the Finance Minister at all material times, said that. I used to strongly oppose him in Cabinet on which ministry was lowering Ghana’s debt stock.

“Obviously, my ministry was going to help the government because when we roll out the affordable housing project and sell the units, we can rake in some money. So eventually, we were going to make some money.

“What was very serious was when they said we did not have the capital outlay to do serious housing.

“...I said maybe his priority is education because Free Senior High School took a good chunk of our revenue, so that is what I thought he was looking at,” he said in an interview on Raw with Roselyn.

Atta Akyea said another opportunity later emerged through an off-taker agreement involving private investors in real estate and housing.

“Then another window came, which is the off-taker’s agreement. It had to do with serious investors in the area of real estate housing projects.

“They said, give us lands and, when you give us lands, they will come and roll out the houses. We will give you the opportunity to buy them. The government could buy them, but if the government is unable to do that, then we engage the general public who are interested in the housing, and when we sell, we will be able to rake in profit.

“There was even the opportunity that we could leverage on the pension fund, so this whole commercial, cutthroat mortgage system would be a thing of the past,” he said.

Atta Akyea said he believes his ideas for transforming Ghana’s housing sector were not a priority for the former President and, as a result, most of his proposals did not see the light of day.