Former Member of the Committee for Joint Action, Kwasi Adu, says government has to look outside the prime areas of Accra if it intends on building affordable housing for government workers.

According to him, trying to put up such housing facilities for workers within the main parts of Accra will be very difficult.

He was referring to the government’s plan to redevelop Cantonments to provide space for new housing facilities for public and civil service workers, including judges and other key government officials.

However, Kwasi Adu says there is no more space in Cantonments for the planned development.

“It is going to be very difficult to provide them in and around the main parts of Accra or near cantonments, Roman Ridge, because as lawyer Gyan is saying, they’re gone. They’ve already been sold,” he said.

Successive governments have attempted to redevelop Cantonments and other prime areas in the capital however; the process has always been shrouded in secrecy and opacity leading to accusations of land grabbing and the sale of prime estate to private developers who put up luxury apartments.

The situation has led to the dislodgement of many government workers who were initially housed in those areas.

According to Kwasi Adu, now that the houses of regular government officials have been given away to private developers, top government officials are next to be victims.

“Now the ones that are left that they’re selling are the very top people’s ones. Tomorrow you’ll hear that the CDS bungalow or land there is being sold, the next day it’s about the Speaker’s bungalow and things like that.

“They’ve finished the lower ones so there’s nothing there. When we’re talking about providing affordable housing we may think of other places where we can think of building affordable housing outside of these places because it’s gone,” he said.

He has instead called for the construction of integrated communities on the outskirts of Accra to house government officials as well as address the housing needs of other Ghanaians.

"So if the government is going to think about affordable housing for people those areas around Roman Ridge, Ring Road estates and things like that are almost all gone. So they must think of other areas where there are small plots and build mass housing for people in those places so that public servants will be able to live there and even for private individuals who may want to rent some of them would be able to rent some of them and then provide the necessary connections with transportation, public transport and other things. It has to be really integrated. What is happening is that there is no integrated plan for anything and they just sell them to themselves,” he said.