The Minister for Works and Housing, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has disclosed that the government has taken steps to enlist private partners for the completion of the Saglemi Affordable Housing Project.
The Mahama administration started the 5,000-unit affordable housing project in 2012.
The project was, however, stalled over allegations of misappropriation of funds.
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During an inspection of the project site, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah revealed plans to secure a private partner within five weeks.
“Cabinet some months ago approved a pathway to progress work on this project and bring it to a conclusion so that the public can utilize it. There has been a technical working group that has been assigned to work on the project and I have had a series of meetings with the group, so we are here to have a look at the progress of work and what is outstanding.
“This morning, I gave instructions to the technical working group that within the next five weeks, it should go ahead with an international expression of interest that is designed to attract private developers who can come in and complete this project for us so that we can put it to use.”
“The project, based on the last estimates from the Ghana Institute of Surveyors, requires over $100 million to complete and this is money that within the current fiscal constraints, we don’t have so we have to explore other ways of finding the money to complete it,” the Works and Housing Minister added.
About the Saglemi Affordable Housing project
The Saglemi Affordable Housing Project was initiated in 2012 for the delivery of 5,000 housing units at a total cost of US$200,000,000.00 under an Engineering-Procurement-Contracting (EPC) Agreement with Messrs Construtora OAS Ghana Limited.
By the end of the stipulated completion date, the original contract of the project had been amended three (3) times, with the project scope reducing from the initial 5,000 housing units to 1,506 housing units, although US$195,854,969.52 representing 98% of the project funds had been expended.
The project which is located at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region was intended to reduce the country’s massive housing deficit.
It is seated on a 300-acre land with one to three-bedroom apartments for low-income earners and includes the realization of around 5,000 residential units.
It has 3-floor buildings with 6 to 9 apartments with living space ranging from 40 m² to 85 m².