The Minister for Works and Housing Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has announced that work will resume on the stalled Saglemi Housing project in November this year.

Initiated under the erstwhile NDC administration, the $200 million project came to a standstill after a value-for-money audit revealed that only 1,506 units were completed instead of a total of 5,000.

However, following the cabinet’s new directives, Works and Housing Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah revealed that negotiations are underway with two shortlisted firms to aid the government’s public-private partnership which will pave the way for work to resume in November.

“Negotiations are currently ongoing and we expect that in early November, work would resume after the new developer is signed up to go the site,” he said.

He made these comments at a ministerial press briefing on September 30.

The Minister stressed that the new arrangements do not mean the housing project is being sold.

“We reiterate that we are not selling these projects. We are working in the PPP [Public Private Partnership] framework to complete these projects. The fact that the government of Ghana does not have money in the treasury to advance for us to finish does not mean these projects should remain stalled,” he said.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah explained that the projects would deteriorate if no steps were taken to complete the projects that the state had invested so much money into.

To salvage the situation, he added that the ministry resorted to a Public-Private partnership which is expected to pave the way for its continuation.

“If we do not want to wait for the government to make that money available and we do not want the projects to continue dilapidating, the best model is to work with the private sector to raise funds,” he added.

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He also stated that the funds that are being provided by the private companies would be repaid to them when the projects had been completed and put to use.