Housing Ministry wasn’t useless, we were limited on funding – Atta Akyea

Former Minister for Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea has refuted assertions that his outfit was “useless” with regards to making an impact in the area of housing.

Atta Akyea in an interview on Citi TV’s Face to Face segment monitored by GhanaWeb pointed that the ministry was rather limited to funds required to undertake various housing initiatives during his tenure.

“It’s obvious that when you look at the kind of loans that some of the Ministries had, measured against what I had to use for housing, to a very reasonable degree. I didn’t have any money for housing, and that’s a fact. It was the perspective of the Finance Minister that it wasn’t our priority now. We were dealing seriously with Planting for Food and Jobs and Free SHS which were money-sucking,” he told the host of the show.

“I didn’t agree, but I didn’t have a choice because of the hard fact that there’s a President who is determining what is a priority to him. If you pay regard to the Constitution, you are part of the government to help in policy so if you proffer a view which does not find favour with the President and Finance Minister, that’s the end of the matter,” Atta Akyea explained.

“I have a good working relationship with Ken Ofori-Atta [Former Finance Minister] and every issue I had with him was dealt with upfront. I certainly had issues with him. I used to question him about the funds allocated to my Ministry,” he recounted.

Atta Akyea however insists these factors woefully affected his outfit's intended resolve and performance to make an impact in the housing sector.

Currently, Ghana faces a housing deficit of two million units. To address this, the government has undertaken a number of housing initiatives.

One of which is a commercial contract between the government and industry players to provide some 20,000 housing units annually for the next 20 years.

Executive Secretary of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), Samuel Amegayibor had earlier disclosed the contract has since reached an advanced stage.