Editorial
National Rent Assistance Scheme laudable, but …
Dear Editor,
In 2023, the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia launched the National Rental Assistance Scheme (NRAS), to cushion tenants that hope to rent decent accommodation.
Reportedly, government paid a whopping GHȻ13.8 million rent advance to beneficiaries across the six regions as of November 2023.
That makes the policy a very good one to help people get decent places to stay.
Considering the number of people seeking decent accommodation but without the corresponding rental demands and the amount of money the scheme has expended already, it means this scheme could collapse in no time.
It is the reason why an intervention announced by the new Minister of Works and Housing, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah to address the housing deficit in Ghana must be embraced by all.
At a validation workshop to revise Ghana’s Housing Profile in Accra on April 9, 2024, Mr Nkrumah said government was working on giving master developers in the housing sector incentives like tax breaks, streamlined approval processes for construction permits and land allocation at competitive rates to jump-start housing projects to bridge the gap.
One of such key abandoned projects is the Saglemi Housing Project, which has 1,506 housing units waiting to be occupied. The Ministry has therefore invited bids from private developers to rehabilitate those units and get them ready for rental.
Secondly, I would want to implore the government or the appropriate authorities to enforce Ghana’s Rent Act, Act 220 that prescribes not more than one month rent as rent advance.
It is sad that despite the existence of this Act, the landlords and agents are still operating in their own world, charging rents putting prospective tenants off.
The situation has created a lot of difficulties for Ghanaians and the earlier government solve them, the better.
Nortey Christabel Naa Shormeh
Level 300
UNIMAC-IJ (Faculty of Journalism)
NAASHORMEYCHRISTABEL@GMAIL.COM