The Minister of Works, Housing and Water Resources, Kenneth Gilbert Adjei, has assured that contractors will soon return to continue working on the Saglemi Affordable Housing project. “We know of the Saglemi housing project, among other projects, has stalled halfway. When I resumed office, I started engaging with key stakeholders, and very soon, we will move to site, and then work will begin,” he said.
Mr Adjei was speaking in an interview during a working visit to some housing projects at Shai Hills and Ningo Prampram in the Greater Accra Region last Tuesday. He toured the National Homeownership Fund Affordable Housing Projects in Shai Hills and Tema Community 22, as well as the Ningo Prampram Coastal Sea Defence Project.
The Saglemi Affordable Housing Project is a facility located on a 300-acre land with one to three-bedroom flats for low-income and middle-income earners, which commenced in 2012 in the first term of President John Dramani Mahama. The project was expected to provide 5,000 residential units to alleviate accommodation deficits and challenges in the Greater Accra Region. Around $200 million had been expended on the project, with a little above 1,500 housing units partially completed.
It had stalled in 2017, following the change of government in the same year over allegations of embezzlement by former Works and Housing Minister, Samuel Ataa Akyea against the former sector Minister, Collins Dauda, who handed over to him. The lawsuits which followed the alleged embezzlement against Mr Dauda eight years ago, led by Former Attorney-Generals (A-Gs) Gloria Akufo and Godfred Yeboah Dame, have been discontinued by the current A-G, Dr Dominic Ayine.
The Minister of Works and Housing said the government would initiate plans to ensure that projects it intended to tackle no longer stalled to cause loss and financial burdens on the state. “We will put in plans to ensure that we don’t start projects and end midway, but to ensure that all projects get to their finishing line,” he said.
Mr Adjei urged contractors to keep to time schedules for completing projects awarded to them to execute. “Some of the projects are behind schedule, some too are on schedule, and I would advise our contractors that going forward, we don’t want any delays in our projects.
“If we give timelines, we should stick to the timelines. Those are things I’m going to meet and discuss with the contractors. Going forward, the ministry also believes that we shouldn’t have stalled projects. If we start something, we should be able to finish,” he stated.
He added that the government was committed to protecting lives and property in the coastal areas and would, therefore, expedite the processes and look for alternative means of funding ongoing defence projects in the coastal areas such as Axim, Cape Coast, Dansoman and Dixcove.
By: Pacome Emmanuel Damalie
