The State Housing Company (SHC), after many years of neglect has started redeveloping its properties at North Kaneshie, a suburb of Accra, amidst jubilation among the work force at its Head Office, The New Crusading GUIDE has learnt.
The enthusiasm, according to an SHC Staff “is because this is the first time in many years that the technical Staff at SHC are going to be on site to do the construction from foundation level to completion of the project”.
In a brief interaction with the Operations Manager of State Housing Company, Daniel Dwamena, he confirmed the redevelopment saying that “yes we have started the redevelopment. We have pulled down our old Guest House which would be replaced with a modern 4-storey residential edifice”.
“This is the first time in over three decades that SHC is using its internally generated funds (IGF) to undertake a major project. We are also using the workforce at SHC so it has sparked some form of enthusiasm in the staff”, he added.
He disclosed that the project is expected to be completed within 24 months.
State Housing Company has embarked on several projects across the country this year with the John Agyekum Kufour Estate in Kumasi being the biggest. It would be recalled that President Akufo-Addo earlier this year cut the sod for the commencement of the construction of the J.A Kufuor Estate which former President John Agyekum Kufuor was named after.
In a related development, participants at the just ended 5th National Policy Summit have made a strong appeal to the government to use the resuscitated State Housing Company as the major vehicle towards clearing the almost 2 million housing deficit in the country.
Speaking on the topic ” Bridging the Housing Deficit-The Role of SHC, Mr. George Osei-Bimpeh, a panelist representing Civil Society Organizations advocated for a change in direction by the government and fully resourcing SHC to lead the charge in the housing industry.
To the participants, SHC must lead every housing project the government would embark on. Their arguments stem from how previous housing projects undertaken by the government in partnership with the private have been embroiled in controversies which sometimes lead to the halting of such projects.
The SHC although is owned by the government, has been a private Company since 1995 and so the participants believe that it should be more reliable dealing with SHC and that if any profits were to accrue from such projects, the government would in the end benefit more since SHC would pay dividend.
Another basis for the appeal to the government is that the government can use SHC to enforce approved building policies which would be more economical.
The Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of eight State Owned Enterprises (SOE) and state programmes who attended the program in the Western Regional Capital of Takoradi, outlined details of a turn-around in their operations over the last 20 months.
