A lecturer at the Kumasi Technical University says inadequate data on Ghana's housing rental system is likely to hamper the implementation of the New Patriotic Party (NPP)'s National Rent Assistance Scheme.

Dr Smart Sarpong said there is currently no data on existing rent accommodations and landlords across the country.

"Infact, i heard somewhere 2019 that a special group from NaBCO was going to assist us to identify landlords and register residents but I don't know what has become of that group and the work they did.

"By now we should have a register for landlords and that has been our challenge as a country."

The scheme captured in the 2020 manifesto of the party will serve as a loan allowance for payment of rents to bridge the gap between tenants and landlords.

This will be done with a $100 million seed capital that will be set aside by the governing government.

While the policy which was revealed by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has been lauded by party faithful, many remain pessimistic.

Speaking with David Akuetteh on Luv FM, Dr Sarpong observed that the implementation of the rent law failed as a result of this gap, making it likely that the National Rent Assistance Scheme will witness the same fate.

"There is this adage that if you are unable to measure, you cannot manage. So right now if we don't have a press-of-a-button answer to how many landlords are in Oforikrom, how many rentable apartments are in Oforikrom; then we will do the scheme haphazardly as we have always done and it will fail.

"Even the enforcement of the rent law has failed because of the non-existence of data.

"And the tenants themselves see the landlords as the ones with the final say because they forget the existence of the law that guides the relationship between them and the landlord.