Some of us had reached these conclusions and insight a long time ago. I would therefore like to share some articles I had written sometime back on the subject.
During the Long Vac in 1975, I did vacation job in the Account ... read full comment
Some of us had reached these conclusions and insight a long time ago. I would therefore like to share some articles I had written sometime back on the subject.
During the Long Vac in 1975, I did vacation job in the Accounts Dept of the Ministry of Housing and Rural Devt. The main job I did was collating the money and postal order payments beneficiaries of Busia's Rural Housing Scheme made. They were small loans designed to help people complete and roof their houses which had reached either lintel and roofing levels. Up to today, one can notice a lot of unroofed houses in the rural areas.
Govt must re-introduce that Scheme.
I don't agree with some of the suggestions of Mr Acquah, esp. his heavy biase towards private enterprise, but that's besides the point. I'll rather want him to investigate what are called Housing Associations here in the UK; a kind of PPP arrangements.
Andy-K
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago
Since the rural areas hold the key to our devt nexus, I cut and paste first my take on transforming those areas, starting with housing from Part 1 . of the article. But since houses cannot be built in isolation, I followed up ... read full comment
Since the rural areas hold the key to our devt nexus, I cut and paste first my take on transforming those areas, starting with housing from Part 1 . of the article. But since houses cannot be built in isolation, I followed up in Part 2 with a completely different view on how to develop our rural areas in urban centres.
ON HOUSING, the vast majority of Ghanaian workers can hardly afford the cheapest of the so-called "low cost" houses of the urban areas, a fact lost on most rural development planners and policy makers in Africa, including Ghana. Thus the rural housing "problem" can hardly be solved by the SSNIT type of "workers" houses springing up in the suburbia of the urban areas. Many senior officials, some who returned from abroad over ten years ago with second degrees in their various fields, could hardly afford one of those "posh" houses at New Lashibi, Sakumono Estates or Spintex. Trasasco Valley? You must be dreaming! Many with families make do with "hall-and-chambers" in the suburbs of the Accra-Tema area, without any sort of amenities. Some actually squat on friends or relatives for years. Yes! Some sleep in lotto kiosks, shops, etc. They came from the rural areas where, depending on their socio-economic status, better or worse housing might be available to them. But no one can deny that rural housing also needs a big innovation and change. But not even the new exotic inventions which are perfected in laboratories overseas, with the machines for manufacturing the "superior and cheap" bricks made by a foreign firm, can solve the rural housing problem. Renovation of the old clay/swish houses and use of local, time tested building materials offer the cheapest and quickest way of providing decent accommodation to the rural people.
I saw in Nigeria how whole districts rely on sun dried clay bricks for building. The houses are then plastered with cement, which is used as mortar between the bricks. Big, nicely painted storey buildings, rather cooler inside than cement-block houses, are built this way. A non-native could never know that he/she lives in a swish house, something regarded as of low status in even rural Ghana these days. Rural clay dwellings are therefore being allowed to deteriorate and collapse, while the dwellers pray and dream nightly of building cement block houses, having hit it big on the local banker-to-banker aptly named "Jesus is our Saviour Banker-to-Banker”.
There is an obvious urgent need for a re-education - conscientizsation - of Ghanaians of all walks in order to make them base development on transforming our culture/s, instead of importing others wholesale. This represents one solution to the rural housing problem too.
OPENING UP THE RURAL AREAS [OF GHANA]. PART 2.
ON ACCESS ROADS. Rural people cannot be expected to use their cutlasses and hoes, with some few spades thrown in, to construct feeder roads from their homes to their farms. In most districts a bulldozer, a grader and a couple of tipper trucks thrown in for those far from laterite soil, would go a long way in greatly alleviating the problem of access roads to the remote farming areas, not to mention from the villages to the trunk roads. With these facilities, the people can then be mobilised to contribute the necessary labour to clear and widen the footpaths to distant farms into adequate "motorable" roads.
But wait a moment! What sort of vehicles are suited for these access roads? Certainly not the expensive and luxurious Landcruisers and other heavy vehicles presently in use on our roads, but very light means of transportation. We must think of providing for these rural "roads" two- and three-wheeled bicycles and rickshaws as already used on Asian roads, and two- and three-wheeled motor bikes and scooters with or without carriages. The heaviest vehicle must be the light three wheeled vehicles common on Asian streets fitted with carriages and roofs for these unmacadamised roads. It is important that heavy vehicles such as timber trucks, except tractors, be kept away from these access roads.
Tarring will eventually come, when increased economic activities provide the means to meet much of the cost, thereby avoiding crippling national debts due to external loans. A young woman can easily paddle a rickshaw with the fire-wood or harvested crops in the carriage to the house or market, and gone are the days of human beings as beasts of burden.
What is singular is that Ghana has the technological skill and infrastructure to produce or assemble these means of transportation locally. With the resultant boost in industrial production for the existing and new assembly plants suitably located in the district capitals, the workshops of mechanics and the local blacksmiths will all have their hands full with manufacturing these vehicles, repairing and making parts for them. The aim is to provide alternative means of gainful employment for the rural school leavers.
HOW CAN THIS INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENT BE FINANCED THEN? Easy! I have read some authors who said the commercial and rural banks have not been borrowing money to rural people because of lack of investment opportunities in the rural areas. That's rather odd, to say the least. Outrageous and plain nonsense, my real opinion. Then what is the whole idea of rural development about? And the million of dollars being borrowed under SAP to "develop" the rural areas, what are they being "invested" in? It is simply an admission of lack of vision and imagination about how to transform the rural areas; plainly lack of understanding how others brought "development" about in their countries.
Rural banks have mobilised billions of cedis (though, unlike others, it's my informed opinion that they have woefully failed to mobilise the "available or potential mobilisable funds"). A large proportion of mobilised funds are now invested in government securities or kept with commercial banks. Some was being used to purchase Akuafo cheques, (for only 1 % commission), which they had a hard time reclaiming from BoG. Most Managers, for the sake of the higher speculative interest rates, would have preferred borrowing this portion too to salaried workers, who now take over 80 % of loans most rural banks make to customers. Commercialisation of the rural banks entails speculation! It was high time such mobilised funds of rural banks are used for their original purpose of developing the rural areas.
First, all eligible borrowers shall be expected to be stakeholders in the rural banks before benefitting from loans and services. This implies a drive to get most adult community members to be shareholders before enjoying the services of rural banks in their areas of residence. Individual or collective purchases of the means of transportation listed can be financed. Development is no charity ball, and depositors’ money cannot be expected to be means for maintaining local patronage systems! And free-riders cannot be permitted any longer. We are sinking! All able hands on board must be mobilised to save the rural boat of poverty and backwardness from sinking deeper!
Secondly, long-term savings could be converted into stocks and bonds issued by local authorities with central government guarantees, instead of purchasing government securities as done presently. A particular stock issue goes towards re roofing the local elementary schools. Another goes towards providing furniture to the new SSS. Another provides electric poles for the suburbs of the town, from the middle of the town where the main line stopped. Other projects can be financed this way. These securities mature in 5 to 25 years, or are paid in mortgaged instalments covering that period, or longer.
The government and external donors make their contributions through provision of grants and technical support to projects identified and initiated by the local people themselves, with the able support of change agents in NGOs with empathy to local people and their needs. Meaningful and genuine local participation in community organisations, instead of attempts at control of the rural populace by bureaucrats and politicians, become the vehicle to rural development. For these community organisations to be effective, a way must be found to control the debilitating impact of the local élite as well. This revolves around the question of local government and drastic reform of chieftaincy along lines I had tackled under a different topic, Taming the Ghanaian State: Reforming Chieftaincy, Part 2.
Development is a long time process, not a project to be executed according to laid down targets within a particular period. We cannot expect current adults alone to carry the burden of development and pay for it. Repayment of principal and interest on the mortgages and loans to local authorities must therefore be spread over a long period and over many tax-payers, some not yet born! A parent may therefore end up, in the long run, paying an affordable GNC20 for re roofing the local elementary school and GNC30 for electric poles. Once the product is delivered, less reluctance to pay up through levies and taxes can be expected from the beneficiaries.
Apart from this, appropriate measures on recalcitrant evaders of taxes can then be legitimised, justified and be acceptable to the community people, very averse to paying taxes at present. After all, in the rural areas of Ghana, people who fail to turn up for "voluntary" work without justification invariably have some form of sanction visited on them, before being allowed to enjoy the fruits of that labour. So there is actually nothing like a "free lunch" in the rural communities, relations being largely regulated by the principle of reciprocity: hand come, hand go!
FROM HAMLETS TO TOWNS: There are many obstacles to be faced in this rural development effort. The rural areas of Ghana, as in many African countries, present a demographic nightmare to development planners. Whereas this is obvious in the three northern regions, it is the case in much of the forested regions of Ghana too. In the absence of any transportation to farms, it makes sense to build new homesteads near ones farm or fishing grounds. The dispersal of population over a wide area in tiny villages and hamlets, and at times, in inaccessible tracts of land makes provision of expensive facilities such as safe drinking water, roads and electricity to a large section of the population an impossible task. Such facilities can hardly be provided economically and sustainably to isolated settlements ranging from one person to a hundred people found in many districts.
Opening up the rural areas by providing means of transportation and communication, as outlined above, should be a means towards getting people to live in settlements of at least a couple of 1000 people, in strategic existing settlements, where they can be easily provided with amenities. The people can then commute to their isolated farms daily by the means suggested earlier. What is envisaged here is not forced settlements of the ujamaa style in Tanzania under Nyerere, not to mention Stalin's disastrous collectivization of the 1930s. Existing settlements chosen by the rural people themselves with the assistance of experts will be upgraded up, and the new access roads radiate from them to the interiors. After all, Tikobo No. 2 and 3 resulted from the need of some inhabitants of Tikobo No. 1 to have easy accessibility to their farms, not for love of living deep in the bush!
Town life will become the focus for new industries and services, allowing the specialisation of the rural economy through a process of differentiation of occupations, increasing specialisation in functions and the resultant variety of goods and services available for consumption.
Multiplicity of occupations, which practically all rural dwellers engage in, lies behind the low production, low productivity, and consequent low exchange and consumption of value added goods and services in our economy as a whole. Most so-called "subsistence farmers" in Africa are hardly full-time farmers at all.
In fact, it is strange that people still refer to some Ghanaian farmers as "subsistence farmers" who produce for their own consumption and not for sale. I did not meet a single full-time farmer I can describe in such terms during my travels in the southern part of Ghana for a period of over three months in early 1993. It'd be outrageously hilarious to define Anlo shallot farmers, for instance, in such terms! I sampled my first onion soup in far away Norway!
If a rural "farmer" does not sell output from his/her farm, then he/she is likely to be earning a living as a carpenter, a mason, a fisherman, a blacksmith, a petty trader, a seamstress/tailor, a store-keeper, a teacher, or one of the myriads of other occupations people engage in to make ends meet in Ghana. Having a small farm is just another part of the "job variation" and, perhaps, "work enrichment" process, in the rural areas. Giving farming loans to such people is one bizarre incidence in existing rural credit schemes, a practice contributory to the high default of so-called "agricultural" loans.
As a matter of fact, there are too many people (about 60 % of the labour force) directly on the land already, and it makes no sense at all haranguing the youth to return to the land. This position, seen as one reason for the low production and productivity in the food crops farming sector, has been argued elsewhere in another article. Most able rural dwellers cannot be expected to be farmers!
Such a lack of specialisation, as known to even "O" Level economics students, brings with it low (or too much) output and less (or too much) for the market, which means low income and then low capital formation, low investment and consumption, and consequent low and poor standards of living for all except a few. Time to begin to break the vicious cycles by opening up the rural areas through original and creative thinking.
In this brief article, I presented a different perspective on the state owned urban land issue. I am very much against selling the lands and even houses to private developers and owners.
THE IN-FILLING POLICY FROM AN NKRUM ... read full comment
In this brief article, I presented a different perspective on the state owned urban land issue. I am very much against selling the lands and even houses to private developers and owners.
THE IN-FILLING POLICY FROM AN NKRUMAIST PERSPECTIVE
In this short piece, written before the recent announcement of the “moratorium” by government on the sale of public lands, I’ve suggested some alternative land use policy for all those prime lands in Ghana’s cities being sold to private individuals. The objective is to meet public, rather than private interest, the reason why they were acquired in the first place. My perspective is grounded in the Nkrumaist world outlook which sees the state as the main actor in bringing rapid change and development about, especially in a country of developing people that Ghana is; instead of the fictional mantra proclaiming the private sector as the engine of growth which both the NDC and NPP subscribe to.
We have all had our fill of the looting of prime, state acquired land in Accra and Kumasi by politicians, public officials and cronies of the powerful in government since JJ Rawlings NDC regime decided on the infamous in-filling policy of selling of such prime lands to private individuals. This was right in keeping with the extreme right-wing socio-economic policies that the PNDC and then the NDC under Rawlings had foisted on Ghanaians from 1983. That was when they ditched their pseudo-socialist posture and ran to The Terrible Twins for relief and survival.
Some of us had had the opportunity to raise our weak voices in cyberspace against the Achimota School’s policy of selling off some of the school land to connected private individuals ostensibly to use the proceeds to make improvements in the school. When this policy was carried to insane levels by the property grabbing NPP regime of Kufuor when they attempted to sell off part of the Achimota Forest Reserve, the only large tract of greenery left in Accra, we screamed ourselves hoarse in cyberspace and it certainly reached Ghana! The so-called Ghanaian elite’s crass crudity in civilised ways and trends beggars belief. These are the very people, many of whom studied abroad and junket around the globe and should have observed the vast public parks in city centres in the civilised world and replicate such aesthetically pleasant objects at home. Unfortunately, their sojourn overseas obviously did not leave any traces of civilization on them in such respects, except the urge to acquire and consume the opulence and glitz that they observe abroad. They are almost all yesterday men and women born during the colonial era who Ghanaians who want a better tomorrow must reject now in order to pave a brighter tomorrow for all; not only these men and women and their equally greedy off-springs!
As we have been told many times over the years and know from the woes of people seeking accommodation in Ghana’s growing urban areas, there is acute shortage of housing in Ghana. I don’t therefore need to bore anyone with the woes and tribulations of accommodation seekers and tenants, and the many who squat on relatives and friends, or sleep rough in shops. I will go straight to my suggestions which I hope the labour unions which, if they still have some teeth and spark of fire in them, shall adopt and campaign for.
First of all, all sales of such lands must be halted immediately. Those already not developed must be retrieved with immediate effect. I welcome the NDC’s government action of placing a moratorium on public land sales but that is only the first step in the right direction: there must be a total ban on such sales!
Secondly, government sponsored housing associations should be set up in conjunction with private developers, with shares opened to the public, to be entrusted with the development of these lands for accommodation and other social-economic facilities for public sector workers, with some percentage reserved for private sector employees working in businesses located at the city centres. This will reduce commuting time and the congestion on the roads by a couple of thousand workers. Allocations for and management of business centres shall form an essential aspect of this effort in order to redress the high cost of business unit rentals in the cities.
Thirdly, tall blocks of flats which maximise land use must be put up so that as many families and individuals can be housed. The emphasis must be on providing accommodation for junior and middle level workers; not the top leadership at all. In that regard, the first level of housing must be like the one room Annexes built on the university campuses or at Accra Polytechnic with modifications to include in-built bathroom cum toilet and kitchenette. These shall be for workers who are single, especially ex-students just getting their first jobs after graduating.
The next level shall have an added sitting room and designed for young couples, preferably without kids. For those starting a family or with kids growing up, an additional room in a two-room flat should be made available. Three-bedroom flats? Build them somewhere else!
Or, convince me!
Accommodation shall be given out on strictly rental basis only and MUST not be sold to occupiers whatsoever. When tenants retire, are transferred or acquired their own accommodation, the flats revert to the Housing Association or the agency allocated the flats, for renting to workers on the waiting list. Yes, waiting list! We have them here in London too and they can be very long!
I could provide an extended argumentation in support of these policy alternatives but suffice it to say that Ghana is still a country of very poor people in which over 50% of the population are either illiterate or functionally illiterate (doesn’t necessarily made them poor); do not have access to basic amenities such as decent housing, water, regular electricity supply and modern water flushed toilets. The less privileged suffer most from lack of these things, and many of these underprivileged are found in our urban areas on an increasing basis.
The suggested accommodation, which are designed to be truly people’s housing policy for the masses (far better than what is available to some residents of say Hong Kong), and not for the elite - which all of Ghana’s housing policies have been since independence - shall begin to address the housing needs of the underdogs in Ghana, many of whom are even university graduates. I know some people will even be happy to get dormitories to sleep in at night at the moment but we are here addressing the use of prime lands, so we shall build the dormitories for the utterly homeless by all means but somewhere else!
Similar housing alternative policy MUST be incorporated into all land development areas located in the city outskirts in order to cater for the generality of the population, most of whom are self-employed, or can never afford to build their own houses. After all, even in the very rich Western countries, just over 50-60 % of adults own their own houses, usually on a mortgage basis. Provision of rental units must therefore be the cornerstone of a pro-Nkrumaist housing policy.
Andy C.Y. Kwawukume
cyandyk@ymail.com
London, June 2012
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
C.Y ANDY-K,
Good recall there. Not old enough to remember that - was in Secondary schools.
There is a suggestion about the gov. providing land as part of the solution/process.
YOU SAY: "Up to today, one can notice a lo ... read full comment
C.Y ANDY-K,
Good recall there. Not old enough to remember that - was in Secondary schools.
There is a suggestion about the gov. providing land as part of the solution/process.
YOU SAY: "Up to today, one can notice a lot of unroofed houses in the rural areas," WRT the "Busia Rural Housing Scheme".
QUESTION: Would you hazard a guess, if you could, if those uncompleted houses are on land owned by the government, the community, or private individuals?
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago
Busia's Rural Housing Scheme I wrote of was designed to assist people to complete their own houses on their own lands. Govt borrowed money to them to complete them. Exactly the same thing happens in Scandinavian countries, to ... read full comment
Busia's Rural Housing Scheme I wrote of was designed to assist people to complete their own houses on their own lands. Govt borrowed money to them to complete them. Exactly the same thing happens in Scandinavian countries, to even a deeper degree - to buy the houses.
The unroofed houses I wrote of have nothing to do with the Scheme. Some were built many years after the demise of Busia and some are still being built and will never be completed if something is not done to halt the trend. The problem was there before Busia came and he tried to solve it. The man wasn't only all warts and horns, you know.
Anyway, Busia also acquired land to build houses on in some big towns in the rural areas. These were sold off. Some of our land near the Anloga Clinic went into the Scheme and we never got any compensation!
Andy-K
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
Got it!
But don't get me wrong, I am in no way making a judgement about the "Busia Scheme", knowing so little about it.
From your essays, looks like it's another valid angle to solving some of the problem. My sense is, ... read full comment
Got it!
But don't get me wrong, I am in no way making a judgement about the "Busia Scheme", knowing so little about it.
From your essays, looks like it's another valid angle to solving some of the problem. My sense is, the inventory of long, uncompleted housing units is quite large. So, using the "in-fill" strategy, simply complete the uncompleted working with local communities.
Thanks.
Sorry about the land palaver near the Anloga Clinic. Hope it never happens again to another family.
Some of us had reached these conclusions and insight a long time ago. I would therefore like to share some articles I had written sometime back on the subject.
During the Long Vac in 1975, I did vacation job in the Account ...
read full comment
Since the rural areas hold the key to our devt nexus, I cut and paste first my take on transforming those areas, starting with housing from Part 1 . of the article. But since houses cannot be built in isolation, I followed up ...
read full comment
In this brief article, I presented a different perspective on the state owned urban land issue. I am very much against selling the lands and even houses to private developers and owners.
THE IN-FILLING POLICY FROM AN NKRUM ...
read full comment
C.Y ANDY-K,
Good recall there. Not old enough to remember that - was in Secondary schools.
There is a suggestion about the gov. providing land as part of the solution/process.
YOU SAY: "Up to today, one can notice a lo ...
read full comment
Busia's Rural Housing Scheme I wrote of was designed to assist people to complete their own houses on their own lands. Govt borrowed money to them to complete them. Exactly the same thing happens in Scandinavian countries, to ...
read full comment
Got it!
But don't get me wrong, I am in no way making a judgement about the "Busia Scheme", knowing so little about it.
From your essays, looks like it's another valid angle to solving some of the problem. My sense is, ...
read full comment