On Monday, July 5, the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association went before the joint committee of Finance and Housing to talk about a petition they presented to Parliament earlier. As to what happened between the formation of the petition and Monday only GREDA members and their self-interest know. But, GREDA backtracked on their opposition to the STX deal to say that Parliament can pass the STX deal but that they also have an alternative deal which they want considered alongside STX! The heated discussion in the oval basement lobby of the legislature moments before the meeting was obvious to all onlookers, including me, that something had gone wrong. The perplexing aspect of the GREDA u-turn is this. They still presented to Parliament their well-detailed alternative project of 30,000 housing units for the security agencies. Simply put, GREDA said they could provide 5,000 housing units for Government per year at an estimated cost of $90,000. They rounded it all up to say they can build the 30,000 housing project at some $540 million! They went as far to provide estimates of how much will be lost to the consolidated fund through the tax exemptions Government intends to offer to STX. While GREDA, after some obvious consultations, is no longer willing to be seen to be opposing STX, by presenting an alternative at nearly a third of the financial package that the STX model would cost the Government, they have impliedly but effectively shot down STX. So far, STX has not been able to support its credit agreement demands with any details of what it is offering Ghana. Attached is GREDA's presentation to the joint committee of Finance and Housing Credit: Gabby Otchere Darko