The government’s affordable housing projects, in the opinion of Michael Donyina Mensah, Executive Director of the Centre for Public Opinion and Awareness (CenPOA), are not feasible.
He asserted that these initiatives are not an inexpensive housing endeavor as promoted but rather are solely commercial operations carried out by the government and its partners.
He believed that the definition of “affordable” should include the idea that the purchasers of the homes are those who can actually afford them.
“People who have the resources to build their own houses don’t need affordable housing,” he says. Those who are wealthy do not require it. I believe that affordable housing has been designed for the average worker. But the average Ghanaian worker cannot afford it. Examine the studio apartments for sale and their prices. An average worker who wants to buy a $13,000 flat would need to save Ghc1000 per month for ten years before he or she could afford the house.”
How many typical Ghanaian employees can afford these homes was a question that he was asked on the Frontline program on Rainbow Radio 87.55FM, hosted by Kwabena Agyapong.
”I believe they should remove the affordable housing tag from there because it is unaffordable and misleading. Because interest and inflation are not taken into account, it will take approximately 15 years to achieve this. So my point is that it is out of reach for most people.”
He also said to the host that the cedi was stabbed in the back by the price in dollars.
The quote in dollars, he said, is problematic for a nation trying to stabilize its domestic currency.
“It’s a disgrace that the prices for the affordable housing project are quoted in dollars. We are disappointed, as a centre, that a government that has encouraged Ghanaians to trade in cedis is quoting prices in dollars. That is a shot in the foot for the government, and we believe it has shown no commitment to encouraging Ghanaian businesses to trade in local currency in order to stabilise the cedi. Unfortunately, the government has not demonstrated that commitment,” he said.