<<Print>>

It emerged in Parliament last Tuesday that the indicative cost of two and three bedroom affordable housing units being constructed by the government for low and middle-income public and civil servants, as well as personnel of the security services is $29,000 and $57,000 respectively.

The high cost of the housing units sparked heated debate in the House with the Minority contending that the houses were far beyond the reach of the average Ghanaian and, therefore, could not be described as "affordable."

The members for Manhyia South and Assin North, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh and Mr Kennedy Agyapong, respectively made the point that no ordinary Ghanaian could afford the houses.
Mr Agyapong, pointing fingers at the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper,  who was in the House in connection with a request for waiver of import duty and other levies amounting to $40.1 million on materials for the construction of the houses, asked: "How many of the officials of even your Ministry can afford one?"

Dr Opoku Prempeh said the project was certainly not a social intervention project as the government would have Ghanaians believe, but a commercial one.

Project description

The project is expected to provide 5,000 affordable housing units in and around urban Accra.

Consideration would be given to the needs of employees in strategic  sectors of the economy, particularly the security services, health care and education sectors

 Due to the social nature of the project,  the units would be allocated strictly on owner-occupier basis to the exclusion of middlemen.

 Beneficiaries may be assisted by financial institutions to obtain loans to purchase the units.

 Management of the developed estates would be undertaken by private companies on behalf of the government to ensure maintenance.

The construction, which is to cover a period of 18 months, has begun.

The distribution of the apartment will be two-bedroom and three-bedroom types of 84 metres square and 120 metres square respectively.

Waiver

The Minority also contended that the waiver of import duty, import Value Added Tax (VAT), import National Health Insurance Levy ( NHIL ), Export Development and Investment Fund ( EDAIF) and other related imposts amounting to $40, 171,308  on materials , equipment and services to be imported and procured locally under the agreement between the government and Credit Swiss International was too high.

Affordable housing not social housing

The Majority Leader, Mr Alban S.K Bagbin, in a rebuttal to the Minority’s views,  said there was a distinction between affordable and social housing.

He said housing units which could be procured by people with extremely low incomes or " the ordinary citizen" was known as social housing.

That was different, he said, from what the government had initiated moves to construct.

Affordable housing, he stated further, was usually for the middle class.

"It does not mean that it is so cheap that the ordinary person can afford," he said.

The Minority, however, maintained that with the current economic situation and the currency exchange rate, even the middle class could not afford the housing units.