Tenants of Hostels Clash with Management Over Rent

The student-tenants of the Ghana Hostels Limited (GHL), University of Ghana led by the Central Representative Committee (CRC) have decried the 89 percent increment in rent for the next academic year by the GHL and has called for a review of the new charge.

The new cost is 1.7 million cedis per semester and 3.4 million cedis for the whole academic year compared to the previous cost of 1.8 million cedis.

This was contained in a report copied to Weekend Agenda which has already been sent to the Senior Manger of Operation of the GHL, Legon.

The CRC representing the student -tenantscall for a review of the up adjustment of hostel fees is based on their discontentment with the residential condition in the hostel, saying that services provided by GHL are unsatisfactory and therefore the increment is not merited.

Students cited unsatisfactory provision of services such as electricity supply which they say was interrupted over six times last semester thereby causing damage to electrical appliances and rendering studying in the evenings almost impossible. They also cited the problem of maintenance of the hostels, which were inadequate.

According to them cleaners employed by the GHL do not offer the best of services.

Another problem is with water supply to the hostel. The report said this has not been adequate since the system put in place to ensure constant running of water did not work.

"Therefore, water is not available throughout the night and it is only restored when the front desk officers return in the morning."

According to the report the furniture in the hostel are not the best since many of the furniture had been destroyed and the bunk beds not manufactured with protective railing on the upper bunks making them quite dangerous.

They also allege that there are also a lot of harassment of student by the front desk officers

"The front desk officers have increasingly become a source of harassment to tenants," the report said adding "Quite a lot of them do not perform their duties too efficiently and continually harass tenants by asking for monetary and other forms of assistance."

The report also criticised the security situation at the hostel.

Reacting to the allegations, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Hostels Limited, Richard Amartey told Weekend Agenda that the increment is prudent for business concerns.

"We appreciate that the jump is high, we appreciate the sentiments of parents and students, but it is necessary for us to deliver and we are obligated to return value to our shareholders, pay dividends and sustain the investment."

He said GHL is now an independent company that has nothing to do with SSNIT, though it was a subsidiary of SSNIT since it gave the seed money for its construction.

GHL therefore has to find the needed funds to sustain the business and manage it well, he said.

According to him, officials of GHL have been reviewing the rent rates since its three years of operation but they have realised that the rates are not realistic looking at market comparables, adding that utilities cost have also risen.

He said that the initial cost before the new rates was 1.8 million which are broken down as follows: 1.3 million cedis as rent that come to GHL to defray the investment done by shareholders, 200,000 cedis for utilities such as water and electricity and 300,000 cedis for common area maintenance such as cleaning the area and weeding.

Amartey said that given these cost breakdown, it was found out that the utility cost being charged was not sufficient since the utility services have increased their rates and again the common area maintenance which is done by hired companies were also rising. These costs he said must be borne by the student-tenants who are living in the premises and not GHL because they are using the services.

He said that another factor for this move is the need to expand the facilities.

"Investors would be willing to put their monies in projects which are feasible and viable," he said adding that "they are operating a system of full cost recovery, they are not there to exploit but at the same time they have to make normal profits for their shareholders and pay dividends.

Amartey said looking at the rent being charged by other competing Hostels such as the Jubilee Hall, International Students Hostel and the VALCO Hostel they are at par or above GHL's previous fees of 1.8 million cedis, yet their facilities are nowhere near that of GHL. "These hostels are even donated projects, unlike GHL which is operating as a business entity and therefore accountable to its shareholders."

Asked by Weekend Agenda whether the reviewed fees were not too high for students to afford, the CEO said that students have a choice that is why they have announced their rates early.

He described all the problems and allegations enumerated by the CRC as false and said that the intermittent electricity cuts were not the fault of the company but due to the operations of the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG).

He also said that the electricity supply for the hostel is run on prepaid meters and they allocate an amount of electricity everyday to the hostel but since students like to use high electric gadgets like microwave, electric cookers and hair dryers the daily allocation quickly get used up creating problems of power outages.

On the issue of harassment of students, he said that for the safety of students, they are advised not to use a certain gate at a certain time in the night but students will not heed, "Again males are not to enter the halls of the females at a certain time in the night but students will breach this and when the security men insist, they call it harrassment ", he added.