Civil Engineer Abdulai Mahama has bemoaned government’s decision to sell off the abandoned Saglemi Housing project.

According to him, the decision is a bad one. 

He explained to the host of Newsfile Evans Mensah on Saturday that selling the project defeats the concept of affordable housing for the ordinary Ghanaian.

The Civil Engineer said the project is no longer affordable.

Mr Mahama urged government to rescind the decision as enough money has been sunk into the project and find ways to complete the project. 

“Immediately I got to know that the government has decided not to complete the Saglemi housing project and leave it in the hands of a private developer then I realised that we have already defeated the concept of affordable.

“Already over $200 million has been sunk into the project and per the Housing Minister’s own assessment which I don’t know he got he it done, we need about $46 million more to be able to bring water, electricity and sewage systems so that if become habitable. 

“So if you do the basic analysis, a unit is going for almost $198,000 that has already gone beyond affordability because ordinarily some of the private developers who are constructing basic affordable two-bedroom will do it at $25,000 to $35,000. So if we are already hitting $198,000, it means that purpose has been defeated. 

“So I think the government decision to hand it over to a private developer is a bad idea,” he said. 

The facility birthed by the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, was meant to be a 5,000-residential unit facility to ease the accommodation deficit in the country.

It sits on a 300-acre land with one to three-bedroom flats for low-income earners. But since the NDC left office in 2017, the project has been mired in controversy with two former government officials being prosecuted.

Last week, the Works and Housing Minister, Francis Asenso Boakye announced plans to privatise the project.