The Minister of Lands, Housing, and Country Planning, Dr. Turad Senesie, has returned from a successful mission in Ghana in a bid to promote President Bio’s agenda for affordable housing and the enhancement of well-planned settlements.
The minister’s delegation was in Accra over the weekend at the invitation of one of Ghana’s biggest real-estate developers, JL Properties, to ascertain the company’s readiness to invest in Sierra Leone.
The Minister is keen to develop micro-cities in degraded land sites or brownfields as captured in the government’s Medium Term Development Plan.
“My intention is to develop sustainable and affordable housing units in well-planned communities, with a special focus to transform slum communities and dumpsites into high peak planned settlements,” Dr. Senesie disclosed, whilst expressing delight that JL Properties is just the right match for such ventures as evident in its records of transforming brownfields into planned gated communities.
In Ghana, the Minister and his team were taken on conducted tours of various real-estate communities developed by JL Properties in Accra, Ghana.
Following the two-day tour, Dr. Senesie disclosed that he was impressed with the evidence of professional and great work being done by the residential developer in that part of the world.
He assured the investor of the support of the government in ensuring the enabling environment to attract and protect such investment in line with the President’s vision to provide affordable housing and decent communities for its citizens.
According to the minister, public-private sector collaboration is at the heart of the vision of the brand new direction of government.
JL Properties is a wholly-owned Ghanaian establishment that is constructing over 200 homes every year, according to its Chief Executive Officer, James Orleans-Lyndsay.
“We have been in the business of transforming degraded land sites into attractive gated communities for the last fifteen years and we are interested in replicating such investments and development in Sierra Leone,” the CEO disclosed.
“After visiting Sierra Leone and studying the development blueprint of President Bio, which happens to be among the best in the sub-region, I am now very much interested to be part of the nation’s infrastructural development,” he pointed out, while assuring that he is looking forward to creating the finest enclaves in Freetown.
“The Minister’s visit underlines the seriousness the government places on infrastructural development and this has cemented my resolve to invest in Sierra Leone,” he ended.
JL Properties was approached by Sierra Leone’s Envoy for Trade and Investment, Alie Turaykeh, who later introduced the investor to His Excellency the President and the Minister of Lands, Housing and Country Planning.
Minister Turad Senesie was in Accra with the Ministry’s Director of Housing, Rashid Charles Ngiawee; Director of Policy Planning and Project Development, Dr. Alphajoh Cham; State House Communication Strategist, Abdul Fonti; Sierra Leone’s Envoy for Trade and Investment, Alie Turaykeh and State House Information Officer, Lamin Sheriff.
