World Bank boss concerned with STX housing project

World Bank Country Director, Ishac Diwan has expressed some disquiet about the Government of Ghana's investment in the STX housing project.

He believes the government should have listened more to the sentiments of the public against the deal.

Parliament approved the agreement for the construction of some 30,000 housing units at the cost of 1.5 billion dollars for the security forces after a protracted and acrimonious debate.

Though Mr. Diwan is generally impressed with the performance of the economy in 2010, he says the debate regarding the STX deal could have been handled better.

He was speaking to Joy Business about his assessment of economic events for this year.

He said the year 2010 was one in which "some of our very ambitious projects that were in gestation for many years started to come to fruition - support for agriculture, capacity building for oil, support for decentralization."

He said the year was a very good one but added his low point was the debate on the controversial STX housing deal.

"Even though I saw the beginning of a good debate on the STX deal, I think that it could have been richer and the government could have listened more to the population. Is this where you want to put a billion and a half [dollars]?