Ken Ofori-Atta
Ken Ofori-Atta

The rejuvenated State Housing Company has been given the mandate to complete all abandoned housing projects started by previous governments.

That was disclosed by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta when he presented the 2019 Budget statement to Parliament.

Accommodation seekers received the news with joy especially because SHC has seen a tremendous turn around over the past year and has the capacity to complete all such projects across the country.

Top on the list of uncompleted and abandoned projects is the SAGLEMI Housing project in the Greater Accra region.

“Government through SHC is looking to partner with private sector developers to deliver housing across the country in every region and to complete all the uncompleted housing projects across the country”, the Finance Minister announced.

It would be recalled that the Minister of Works and Housing recently described as “white elephant”, a 1500 housing unit built under the Saglemi Housing project at Tsopoli in the Ningo-Prampram District in the Greater Accra Region.

According to him, the housing units which were inaugurated by former president John Mahama in 2016 were without basic amenities like water, electricity and drainage systems.

The Minister imputed criminality to the project which he said has suffered major deficit.

“The Seglemi structure that we see over there is a huge trouble. If we should go into why it has not been inhabited, we will go into crisis. I can assure you there is a challenge in terms of how the monies were faithfully applied to the project, matters that the Attorney-General would have to look at and EOCO to investigate.

“They do not have the requisite infrastructure and amenities for people to go and inhabit the place. They do not have water facilities and decent drainage systems and therefore the money intended for the project has been spirited away with this kind of white elephant we are seeing,” he said.

The $180million project, the first phase of which was inaugurated in 2016 has been without life almost two years after they were inaugurated.

Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM