If the government does ultimately decide to put the SaglemiHousing Project up for sale, the Minority has urged any private investors not to buy it. Any developer who entered into that agreement, it was stated, would be doing so at their own risk since, if the National Democratic Congress (NDC) won the 2024 elections, such an agreement would be nullified.
According to Vincent Oppong Asamoah, the ranking member on the Works and Housing Committee, “We are very confident that the NDC will form the next government in 2025, so any private developer who would buy this facility would have it taken away from him because it should remain affordable and must go to workers in Ghana.” Yesterday, after viewing the project with other members of the minority community, he briefed the media at the project site in Saglemi and delivered this warning.
Francis Asenso-Boakye, the minister of works and housing, had said that the government was considering the possibility of selling the 1,506 housing units to a private developer. This visit was in response to his comments. Earlier this month, Mr. Asenso-Boakye stated at a press conference in Accra, “Government has decided to explore the possibility of selling the Saglemi Housing Project, covering the 1,506 housing units, to a private sector entity at the current value to complete and sell the housing units to the public, at no further cost to the State.”
He stated that a Technical Working Team composed of professionals and experts has been established in furtherance of the aforementioned and to facilitate the procedures. Its role is to oversee and direct all engagements necessary for the project’s completion to ensure transparency and accountability. However, Mr. Asamoah, MP for Dormaa West, claimed that the administration intended to provide housing units to their friends.
The rooms had been looted and the fixtures had been taken out when the crew visited the location in the Ningo-Prampram Municipality. The kitchen utensils were corroding, the window louvres, electrical lines, sockets, and electricity meters were all gone, and the burglar-proofing was compromised by soiled floor tiles. “If you take a close look at the theft that took place here, you can tell that it was done on purpose to give the project to their friends for a discount. To finish this project, the administration will be required by Parliament to seek financing, he declared.
According to him, the NDC did not sell out to the private sector when it took over two housing projects from the John Agyekum Kufuor administration in 2009, even though their completion rate was lower than that of the Saglemi project, which is typically about 90% complete. Instead, it worked with the Social Security and National Insurance Trust to complete them.
“We believe this program is still worthwhile, and its original intent was to make houses accessible to Ghanaian workers through mortgage-based Ghana Home Loans. Any attempt to sell it to a private developer will be resisted, and any private developer who purchases it does so at their peril, he emphasized.
When the government brought former Works and Housing Ministers Collins Dauda and Dr. Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah to court and accused them of purposefully inflicting the state financial loss, the Saglemi project turned contentious. The contractor paid US$179.9 million for the project, and the government claimed that US$196.43 million had been spent on it, but investigations showed only US$64.98 million had been spent on actual on-site work.
“Further inquiries showed that the contractor had only finished building 668 dwelling units. But they can’t be lived in. In a lawsuit it filed before the High Court, the A-G claimed that not a single home under the project had been sold and that the facility’s bills had not been paid, causing a significant financial loss to the Republic of Ghana.
