According to him, the government has started initiating policies required to drive down the cost of mortgages.

[contextly_sidebar id=”u8THbFf0glTA7yxJVfgL4RiHPiGrBwgb”]Affordable housing is a major challenge for Ghanaians as the country’s housing deficit is estimated at about 1.7 million housing units.

Delivering the State of the Nation Address in parliament today, [Thursday], President Akufo-Addo disclosed that, deliberations are ongoing between the Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), and banks, to design an effective mortgage system for Ghanaians.

This, he said, is aimed at making access to houses affordable for the majority of Ghanaians in the middle-income bracket.

“Discussions are ongoing between the Pensions Regulatory Authority and the banks to underwrite an effective mortgage system. This will facilitate access to housing for the ordinary Ghanaian,” he said, adding that government is also working to attract private investors into the housing industry.

President Akufo-Addo was optimistic that, creating an enabling environment for the private sector will encourage investors to channel their funds into the housing industry.

Highlighting some steps taken in 2017 to reduce the cost of housing, President Akufo-Addo stated that, government has shown commitment to providing homes for all Ghanaians by removing the 5 percent VAT/NHL on real estate cost.

“We have begun the difficult process of making housing affordable for Ghanaians. Government last year [2017], abolished the 5 percent VAT/NHL on real estate sales and continues to create a conducive environment that is reducing interest rates and mortgage loans,” he said.

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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post NPRA, banks discussing effective mortgage system – Nana Addo appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This is due to the budgetary allocation for the Ministry in the 2018 budget, which was noted to be less than half of the funds the Ministry actually requires.

While the Ministry owes contractors to the tune of GHc 1 billion, the entire allocation for the ministry, which is largely concerned with infrastructure, is GHc 91 million.

The Chairman of the Works and Housing Committee of Parliament, Nana Amoako, captured the sentiments of his committee’s members and other MPs in the report of the committee on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday.

“The Ministry has been allocated a total sum GHc 91, 481,044, whilst the actual requirement for the effective implementation of its programme is estimated to be at about GHc 225 million.”

“Though the ministry was able to honour part of its indebtedness to contractors, it still has GHc 1, 174,220,650.59 outstanding as at 31^st October, 2017. This means the ministry’s 2018 total allocation of GHc 91 million will not be able to settle this huge indebtedness,” the MP noted.

The ministry, headed by Samuel Atta-Akyea, had its budget slashed from Ghc 109 million to the current Ghc 91 million.

The Ministry has as its main functions the formulation and coordination of policies and programmes for the development of the country’s infrastructure requirements in respect of works and housing.

It previously had to concern itself with water supply and sanitation, before a separate Ministry for Water Resources and Sanitation was created by the Akufo-Addo administration.

The Ministry coordinates and supervises, by way of monitoring and evaluation of the performance of both public and private agencies responding to and participating in the realization of the policy objectives established for the sector.

But one of the major headaches of the Ministry will be to ease the drainage problems in urban areas which is greatly affecting housing.

Well aware of the financial constraints, the sector minister, Mr. Atta-Akyea, noted to Parliament in November that government has put together a road-map to provide permanent infrastructure solution to the perennial flooding in Accra, which would be involved in seeking external help.

He said the capital expenditure for the provision of the drainage and sewage to fix the recurring floods were beyond the national budget.

But beyond this, the World Bank in a recent report estimated that, to address Ghana’s huge infrastructure deficit, a sustained spending of at least $1.5bn per annum over the next decade would be needed to plug the infrastructure gap.

In general, the allocation to public infrastructure declined in the 2018 budget to GHc 1.804 million in 2018, from GHc 2.624 million in 2017.

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By: Duke Mensah Opoku & Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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It is, however, curious that a figure that was supposedly estimated at around the year 2000 would remain impervious to demographic changes and ensuing developments in the housing sector.

In fact, the lapse of time alone should cause us to legitimately question the continuous references to the 1.7 million housing deficit figure in public and academic discourse. In this article, I seek to draw the attention of stakeholders in the housing sector to the obvious inaccuracies inherent in the housing deficit estimates including fundamental misstatement of facts.

I must stress that this article is not seeking to downplay the seriousness of the housing crisis the country faces. Rather, it is seeking to properly situate the challenges in the housing sector in the light of publicly available data on the deficit. This clarification is important for the following reasons. First, public discourse on matters of national interest must not be based on incorrect statement of facts especially where such facts are easily verifiable.

Second, in situations where the public’s perception of the severity of a problem is shaped by inaccurate facts, policy responses by the government might be viewed with skepticism and face credibility deficit. Third and more importantly, there is a real possibility for such inaccurate facts to distort the judgment of policy makers is designing policies to solve the problem.

A good starting point is to examine the source of the 1.7 million deficit figure, the 2000 Housing Profile report. This report estimated the housing deficit at 1.7 million rooms as at the year 2000. Note the use of the word “rooms” instead of “units”, which is often quoted in the press and other publications. The difference between the two words should be apparent.

The Ghana Statistical Service defines a dwelling unit as “a specific area or space occupied by a particular household”.  Such a space or area may be comprised of one or several rooms. In effect, rooms make up a dwelling unit and the two terms cannot simply be treated as synonyms. Using dwelling units in estimating housing needs or deficit can be misleading unless one specifies the composition of the unit in question and it is to avoid this confusion that the Housing Profiles used rooms as the basis for estimating the deficit rather than units.

To illustrate, assuming each dwelling unit comprises of two bedrooms and we estimate a deficit of say 1 million rooms, then expressing this in units will result in 500,000 units. Thus, even if we were to take the 2000 estimate of the housing deficit as still applicable in 2017, we should be talking about 1.7 million rooms and not 1.7 million units unless we make the unrealistic assumption that each housing unit should comprise of one room.

As a matter of fact, given the national average household size of about 4 persons and an occupancy threshold of two persons per room as stipulated in the Zoning and Planning Standards (2011), two to three-bedroom units would seem to be the more appropriate housing unit sizes. Consequently, the housing deficit as at 2000 should be no more than 850,000 units if we assume that housing units should comprise of two bedrooms, on average.

Besides the inadvertent misrepresentation of the 2000 housing deficit estimates, changes in the number of households and increases in the housing stock arising from construction of new houses should render the 1.7million deficit figure outdated. Note that a deficit is only an indication that demand for housing exceeds supply and so long as both demand and supply are not static, we should expect the deficit figure to change overtime.

An examination of the fundamental drivers of demand (household formation) and supply (housing stock) for the years 2000 and 2010 show that there have been substantial changes over the period. Thus, it is possible that the deficit may have worsened or improved since 2000. Fortunately, the 2010 housing profile has provided a more recent estimate of the deficit figure and one would expect stakeholders to, at the very least, be more interested in this than the 2000 estimate.

Furthermore, the national housing policy, which is supposed to be the guiding document on all discussions relating to the housing situation in the country, uses the figures from the 2010 Housing Profile to ground the policy framework. It is therefore very surprising that in spite of these more recent and readily available estimates on the housing deficit, stakeholders continue to rely on the outdated 1.7 million figure in public discourse.

Even though the 2010 estimates can also be regarded as stale, it is still worthwhile to highlight the deficit numbers reported by the Housing Profile. According to the UN-HABITAT commissioned report, the country had a total housing deficit of 2.5 million rooms implying a worsening of the deficit by about 47% since the earlier estimate in 2000. This fact should not come as a surprise to anyone who follows developments in the housing sector as there has not been a significant shift in the fundamental economic drivers or policy stance on housing over the past two decades. It is important to stress that inasmuch as the worsening of the housing deficit is alarming and requires urgent attention, it is inappropriate to misquote or exaggerate albeit unwittingly in order to draw attention.

To be clear, there is no need for any such exaggeration, as the problems in the housing sector are evident to even casual observers. Using an average unit size of two bedrooms would imply a deficit of about 1.25 million units as at 2010. There are good reasons to expect the deficit to have worsened since 2010. However, using the 2010 figure and a modest price of $20,000 for a two bedroom house brings the total sum required to clear the deficit to about $25 billion. This represents approximately 60% of the nation’s current Gross Domestic Product and highlights the urgent need for the government to develop a system that incentivizes increased investments in housing over the next several decades.

Even though the 2010 deficit estimate is more recent, it did not have the benefit of the2010 Population and Housing Census as the Housing Profile was completed before the release of the census report. The Housing Profile relied mainly on population projections based on past census reports. A careful analysis of the projected number of households, which is the key determinant of housing demand, shows that it missed the actual number of households by about 20%.

An even larger discrepancy can be expected in any estimate of the housing stock given the sheer lack of data on the numbers and nature of the houses produced through informal channels. Incidentally, it is through the informal channels, which are characterized by a lack of access to any improved infrastructure, noncompliance with building and planning standards, and tenure insecurity that the vast majority of houses are produced in Ghana.

The foregoing observations suggest a need for a comprehensive study on the state of the demand and supply sides of the housing market in Ghana. This is particularly required for the major urban areas where the housing problem may be getting to a crisis level. The effective implementation of the new property addressing system government has introduced should provide an opportunity to collect data on the housing stock on a continuous basis while census data either actual or projected should allow us to estimate the demand for housing.

It is vital that policies and solutions designed to solve social problems such as lack of housing are grounded on accurate and relevant data. Besides, the data must allow for disaggregation into different aspects of the problem to enable policymakers to properly target solutions. It is not very helpful from a policy standpoint to simply state the total number of the supply deficit without specifying the exact nature of the need. For instance, housing need has different facets and any attempt at estimating it must clearly specify the kind of need of interest. These might include needs arising out of the following:

• Lack of own secure tenure, which includes the homeless, households with insecure tenures and unaffordable accommodation.
• Mismatch/unsuitable housing, encompassing overcrowding, sharing of basic amenities and under-utilization of housing (i.e. households occupying excessively large houses than required).
• Poor housing condition, including those lacking basic amenities such as kitchen, bath, toilets etc.
• Lack of social housing for vulnerable groups such as persons with disabilities and the aged.

A housing need assessment that quantifies the needs arising out of each of these would be invaluable to policymakers and other stakeholders in the housing sector as we seek a lasting solution to the housing crisis the country faces.

An important dimension that has largely been absent in the discussions on the deficit is the extent to which the unmet demand is effective. In other words, even if we settled on the exact number of the housing deficit, it would still be important to get a sense of how many units can be absorbed by the market by giving due consideration to issues of affordability and purchasing power.

This is particularly relevant for the real estate development industry whose major interest is in providing units that would be purchased in a timely manner. It would not make economic sense to build houses in response to demand that is not backed by purchasing power. It is in this regard that urgent attention is required in developing a sustainable formal housing finance system that can deliver affordable finance to households across the different spectrum of incomes.

A related issue is the non-segmentation of the housing market in discussing the deficit. There is no doubt that Ghana faces challenges in the supply of affordable and decent houses for the middle and lower income segments of the market. However, same cannot be said of the high-income segment of the market. Anecdotal evidence points to the fact that supply in the upper-income segment is adequate and there are even fears of possible oversupply.

Housing remains central in every effort at improving the socioeconomic wellbeing of the Ghanaian and stakeholders in the housing sector must fully understand the extent of the problems the nation faces in providing decent and affordable housing for all.  This requires an up to date, reliable and accurate data on the housing need. The current situation where even basic facts such as the housing deficit are questionable does not inspire a lot confidence in our ability to solve this problem.

By: Dr. Frank Gyamfi-Yeboah

[email protected]

Senior Lecturer, Department of Land Economy

KNUST, Kumasi

The post The 1.7 million units housing deficit: Myth or reality? [Article] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Samuel Atta-Akyea, said the ministry would seek Cabinet approval on a proposal to invest between 30 and 40 percent of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) funds in the proposed credible mortgage system to ensure that all workers had access to mortgage facilities.

[contextly_sidebar id=”9Ktph9KReTgcOHbAz2Ewrk4BGk0fag1l”]He was speaking at the celebration of the 2017 World Habitat Day in Accra on Monday under the theme “Housing policies: Affordable homes.”

The UN has designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day.

The celebration provides the platform for stakeholders and all individuals to reflect on the state of towns and cities and the right of all to adequate shelter.

It is also intended to remind the world that all citizens have the power and responsibility to help shape the future of the world’s cities and towns.

Mr. Atta-Akyea defined a credible mortgage facility as one that allowed all workers, irrespective of their salary income group, to have access to mortgage, and pay off with 30 per cent of their salaries over a period of time, in line with the international definition of affordability.

Considering the challenge of affordability and salary levels in Ghana, he said, Ghana needs a credible mortgage system, saying “that is what we are going to push for.”

He said the ministry is working hard to ensure that low and middle-income earners could access mortgage facilities and pay off with 30 percent of their salaries for an agreed duration.

“Affordable housing is uppermost in the planning of the ministry. We can never talk about affordable housing if we do not address the financing dimension of it to ensure that the low and middle-income group could access mortgage facilities.

“My investigations have established the absence of a credible mortgage system which allows the low and middle-income group to access housing loans,” he said.

He said the government, recognizing low income levels as a challenge on the demand side of housing in Ghana, had decided to focus on making affordable houses which are truly affordable through pragmatic policies such as the credible mortgage facility.

“What we do not understand is the essence of SSNIT. It is a mockery to say that someone contributed to the trust for so many years, but after pension he or she did not have a decent home of his or her own, no matter the type or how small it is, the fund can help or facilitate the purchase of a house.”

“As for SSNIT, some of its ideas are to make money, for which I don’t begrudge it at all, but it becomes unfortunate when it makes the money out of contributions by ordinary contributors but the contributors are deprived of the investments SSNIT makes,” he said.

He described the situation as diabolic and must stop with all urgency to make SSNIT more relevant to contributors.

He explained that the necessary interventions would be put in place to ensure that the interest on the mortgage loan would be pegged by the government, not through market forces, to ensure reasonable interest rate and accessibility for the target group.

Other interventions

Mr. Atta Akyea said the government is also considering alternative building technologies that could reduce the cost of decent housing to ensure that every worker had access to a decent house to meet his or her needs and financial status.

He said such technologies to be considered were wooden houses, as seen in the United States of America and other developed countries, container houses, brick houses and pre-fabricated houses.

He said the government was also considering public-private partnerships in addressing the more than 1.7 million housing deficit, as it had been established by many stakeholders that the government alone cannot address the problem.

On real estate agency practice, he said a draft policy paper expected to boost and regulate the practice, such as transactions, sale, purchase, rentals, leasing, among other objectives, is ready for approval by the Cabinet.

“Other interventions, which the government is putting in place to enhance the housing sector, include the amendment of the Rent Act to ensure that landlords and landladies charged only three months’ rent advance,” he added.

He also spoke about other measures to include the curbing of encroachment, illegal acquisition of government landed properties and the implementation of the national housing policy.

In her remarks, the United Nations Resident Coordinator, Dr. Christine Evans-Klock, said the UN team in Ghana is committed to supporting the combined and concerted efforts of Ghana to deliver decent houses for all.

She said under the leadership of the UN-Habitat, the UN supported all levels of governments in meeting their commitments under international law related to adequate housing.

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By: Philip Nii Lartey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post We’ll invest SSNIT funds in affordable mortgage – Atta-Akyea appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Housing, too, is one of our main preoccupations. We are at this moment in the last stages of formulating large-scale housing projects, which we hope to have ready soon. A factory for prefabricated concrete units is now under construction and will come into production sometime this year. When these plans are completed, we shall be able to put up low-cost housing to meet the needs of our working people at the rate of two hundred houses a month. This should go a long way to offset the pressing housing problem

-Kwame Nkrumah, during a presentation of his 7-year development plan in Parliament on 11th March, 1964

The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 is pursuing a global action to make cities and communities sustainable through the creation of good, affordable public housing, and upgrade of slum settlements, among others. Ghana is part of this global action and that is why under phase II of the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA), there is a human settlements policy to ensure that all human activities within our cities, towns and villages are undertaken in a planned and spatially determined manner in order to bring about equity and enhance socio-economic development. In line with this agenda, the Town and Country Planning Department designed the Ghana National Spatial Development Framework (NSDF; 2015-2035) to provide strategic vision for spatial development of the country over the next 20 years (APR, 2015).

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines housing as a concept embracing the interconnected elements of home (household), dwelling (house/flat), community (cohesiveness of people living, working and serving within the vicinity), and neighbourhood (public services, malls, places of worship, etc.). Abraham Maslow, the famous psychologist, recognized housing (shelter) as one of the basic prerequisites for self-actualization. Post-independence governments have underscored commitments to improving delivery, affordability and accessibility of decent housing in Ghana. These have found expression in several housing policies which took cognizance of the ripple effect of decent housing on the mental, physical and social well-being of citizens.

Provision of decent housing became imperative more so because the colonial authorities ignored that provision for Ghanaians in general, focusing on only foreign staff and senior local civil servants in the public service. Only well-off Ghanaians who could build to the standards and specification of a “European style” house were given access to lands to build. Between 1964 and 1966, following our independence and republican status, government introduced a socialist public housing policy with the aim of giving houses in Ghana the desired refurbishment; a newer, better and more pleasant look whilst maintaining the traditional sense of community. Subsidy packages, loans and housing programmes evolved from this policy. A cumulative low-cost housing stock of 11,752 was harvested from the policy within three years (the Tema Development Corporation delivered 10,700 housing units; State Housing Corporation (now company) delivered 1,052 housing units). The life of this housing policy was however short-lived as it was truncated after the ousting of Dr Nkrumah’s government in 1966 and replaced by a capitalist-oriented policy from 1969-1971.

During this period, subsidies and other forms of self-help incentives for housing were discontinued as a result of policy shift to private sector participation. This policy was a year short of its predecessor. Government again took primary responsibility for housing provision in the subsequent years (1972-1979). Through reduction in building costs, promotion of local building materials and low-income housing, close to 7,400 housing units were provided. From the 1980s to the early 1990s, the housing sector was liberalized, whittling down state involvement particularly through the establishment of the Home Finance Company (HFC). It was a justifiable move on the grounds that the manifest failures of State housing institutions outweighed the noble intentions for their creation. For instance, the State Housing Corporation delivered an average of 415 housing units per annum for over 50 years of operation, representing less than six percent of national housing need (Boamah, 2014).

What needs restating is that succeeding governments recognize the deplorable state of housing in Ghana that required fixing. Intentions to solve the problem, which were translated into policy instruments and strategic interventions of mainly socialist flavor, were defeated by corruption, nepotism and waste.

With the private sector leading the housing provision agenda, profit became the superordinate aim surpassing considerations of access to the conceptualized definition of housing by WHO. What private Real Estate Developers and government (Social Security and National Insurance Trust) started out as “affordable housing” eventually became unaffordable and inaccessible to the bulk of Ghana’s working class. Since the focus now turned on the upper and middle classes, the impact of private sector participation in housing provision could not reach the working class. This remains the case to date. Thus, it is this deficit which gave the informal sector the stimulus to get fully into the rental accommodation business, delivering massive impact within a short period of time. Whilst the formal sector delivers only 2,500 housing units at its peak, the informal sector delivers 30,000 units every year (Akuffo, 2006). However this came with exploitation and at great inconvenience, to the working class.

The face of Ghana’s Housing Deficit

About two months ago, I had a sober reflection on how our housing deficits has drawn out the rapaciousness of some landlords in the country, all in an unbridled pursuit of abnormal profits. This was occasioned by an account from a friend of mine called Charles (name changed). Charles comes from an extremely poor household. His father could not fund his education, so he had to terminate schooling at Form Two in Junior High School. The economic circumstances in his family was terrible such that he had to leave his family in the Volta region for the capital city, Accra where he hopes to better his economic prospects. He spent several years under apprenticeship before eventually moving on to establish his own tailoring business. Charles is working extremely hard to get out of poverty. When Charles moved on to start his business, he had to cough up thousands of cedis to make a 2-year rent advance payment for his shop and house respectively; in a day, many years of his savings was reduced to nearly zero. A 2-year rent advance is illegal (the 1963 Rent Control law, Act 220, clause 25 (5) states that landlords should not charge rent advance beyond six months) but Charles was compelled to pay because there are no alternatives, and effective mechanisms to seek redress.

Typical House Prices in Accra

The annual per capita income of the average Ghanaian is GHS 5,347. All things being equal, it means that for the average Ghanaian to afford a 1 bedroom (semi-detached, expandable), he or she will have to work for at least 14 years; a 2 bedroom house 18 years; and a 3 bedroom house 27 years. But drastic changes in the prices of goods and services as a result of taxes, dollar-cedi dynamics, economic hardships is a constant in cities such as Accra and Kumasi. Thus, access to credit and house loans (mortgages) are critical mediating interventions to raise capital for home purchase. Unfortunately close to 90 percent of urban dwellers are disadvantaged by their poor income status in accessing loans; they cannot obtain the needed amount required as collateral (GLSS (6); pg. 167).

Home ownership is more prevalent in the rural areas. These are mostly properties that have been handed down from one generation to the other, and tend to lack the aesthetic qualities of preferred housing. Rural-urban migration is among factors which have contributed to the imbalance between ownership and renting. 41% of Accra’s 2.6 million inhabitants are living in rented homes (apartments), 23% are living in houses without paying any form of rent and less than 1% are perching in kiosks or sleeping by the roadside.

Ghana’s Parliament on the State of Housing

I am aware that the Ministry of Works and Housing has come out with some measures to help address the housing deficit. The issue of tax relief to the housing fraternity is an issue worth noting and we would have to take a closer look at it to encourage them to put up a lot more houses for our people

– Mr. David T. Assumeng, MP for Shai Osudoku | 16 July, 2013

Mr. Speaker, so far as there continues to be deficits, people would also make abnormal profits out of the situation. And how much do they pay to the Consolidated Fund out of these abnormal profits that they are making? So the rents are not realistic. People are cashing in just on the fact that we have housing deficits.

– Mr. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, MP for Dormaa Central | 16 July, 2013

The housing deficit and its impact on the well-being of the working class has been extensively discussed in Ghana’s Parliament. The Hansard is replete with deliberations on the subject encompassing independent research information, constituency stories, government interventions, failure of government agencies and departments, and private sector participation. Though evidence suggest that Legislators agree on a bipartisan approach to the housing issue, moving forward with proposed interventions has been a challenge. In summary, the following aspects of our housing problem has been discussed on the floor of Parliament:

1. High, unrealistic rents giving home owners the opportunity to take advantage of the situation;
2. Inability of the Rent Control Department to enforce the rent control act;
3. No budgetary allocations for affordable housing by the Rural Housing Department in the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing;
4. Government sponsored housing projects has been on and off. For instance, phase II of the construction of 368 housing unit for the security services has been ongoing for the past three years without any sign of completion;
5. Struggling local private housing delivery system as a result of lack of tax exemptions.

Proposals for tax reliefs to the local private sector, use of local materials, and rent control law enforcement have been made as captured in the Parliamentary Hansards. However attempts to deliver affordable housing has been frustrated by almost the same factors that impeded state housing provision in the early 90s and 2000s.

Conclusion

People like Charles will still look up to political leadership to address the housing challenge, because the private sector is single-handedly incapable of delivering affordable housing and housing finance to the informal sector and low-income households. Also obvious is the fact that affordable housing cannot be provided in the face of corruption, crony capitalism, greed, mismanagement and lip-service.

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Source: Odekro

The post A necessity turned luxury: The search for roofs over our heads appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

[contextly_sidebar id=”VQ7LNK8XtHjSdUOV6G0A6vxu9jhbOJ8b”]According to him, financing is one critical factor that has impeded Ghana’s efforts at reducing the widening housing deficit.

Mr. Atta Akyea also believes the high cost of housing units has made it unattractive for real estate developers to build more housing units over fear of low occupancy levels.

“If the income levels are low by virtue of the economic situation, then there should be a Housing Fund without which people who are interested in building housing units will not be motivated to build houses that people will not occupy ,”he said.

Mr. Atta Akyea further explained that the Housing Fund should help restructure the current mortgage system that makes it difficult for low end income earners to meet their monthly obligations.

“What is critical is how to cushion the end user from a mortgage arrangement that will not dent his pocket. Mortgages are usually a factor of one’s income; somebody cannot afford an eight bedroom house while another can afford a single bedroom house. But the income levels should just be enough to take care of the mortgage payments to make every month,”

Lawyer Atta Akyea made the remarks when he spoke to journalists after his nomination on Wednesday.

The Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South also identified his priority to be to pursue government’s affordable housing agenda upon his approval by Parliament.

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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post New housing fund to subsidize cost of houses appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the group, the former Regional Minister initiated a number of developmental projects that were beneficial to residents in the region.

Ephraim Avea Nsoh was relieved of his post as the Upper East Regional Minister in the President’s latest reshuffle.

The group warned of a massive demonstration to register their displeasure if President Mahama fails to grant their request.

“ We have given the President a mandate, what we can do is that we will follow this with a demonstration,” the first Deputy Organizer of the Association, Mr. Nicholas Awuse said.

Speaking to Citi News, Mr. Awuse also expressed his worry about the consistent reshuffling of Ministers in the region.

Mr. Awuse revealed that Regional Ministers in the region have consistently been transferred or reshuffled to other areas since 1992.

He noted that the continuous reshuffle will affect the development and the stability of the region.

By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Re-instate our Minister or face our wrath – Group to Mahama appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.