A Community Relations Officer of a mining company once approached the Chiefs and Elders of a village in Ghana to convince them to move into new houses his company had built for them. The reason was that the mining company had discovered gold on their land and the relocation was to pave way for exploration of this precious mineral to be undertaken.
Interestingly, where most of the gold deposits could be found was beneath their public toilet. The people objected to the idea of being relocated into new homes, even though the new houses were by far better than where they were living. Unlike their single-room mud houses, the residents were to each receive modern, larger self-contained houses to themselves. Yet, they still rejected it.
This shocked the community relations officer. He was surprised at the actions of the people in the community, exclaiming that he did not understand why they would still maintain a public toilet, beneath which, were gold deposits. He sure was baffled!
Even more, the community felt insulted that the officer was also baffled but upon several further pleas and consultative engagements with the community, the people eventually agreed to move into their new homes. There was a mutual agreement with the mining company on how the community would benefit from the proceeds of the gold that will be mined.
This true story can be likened to the present-day housing situation in Ghana. There are some prime areas in Accra, which are still underdeveloped because the indigenes are not ready to lease out their lands to private housing investors to make good use of them. A win-win agreement between these parties could have benefited all the stakeholders, but the owners of these lands have continuously rejected any such deals.
Unbelievably, old and dilapidated houses are still present in such places as Chorkor, Jamestown, Accra Central, Adabraka, Labadi, Teshie, among others. Will it not be beneficial or serve a larger interest to lease some of these lands for redevelopment?
Will it not also help leasees to have decent places of living and benefit from them economically?
In many developed economies, lands that are closer to waterfronts are the most expensive. But in Ghana, the reverse is true. Houses found around our country's shorelines are just not the best, and it defies infrastructural and developmental logic in a country with a huge housing deficit.
Our people are, in fact, "sitting" on their gold (money). In Turkey, for instance, there is a story about how a family left a coastline land to pave the way for redevelopment. This redevelopment is promoting tourism in Turkey, and the family also made a fortune from the land they leased. Can we replicate this in Ghana?
This is the kind of approach Ghana can adopt if we want to beautify the country and redevelop our landscape. For this to happen, all stakeholders have to dialogue in terms of benefits and fairness, guided by value for money, and improving access to decent housing.
This will have an economic impact in many communities bedevilled by poor infrastructure but have the potential of changing the housing narratives.
If there is the need to do something about Ghana's housing situation and redevelopment, then the time is now due to the evolving nature of better housing.
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