State Housing Company takes steps to recover outstanding debt
The State Housing Company (SHC) Ltd has launched a nationwide revenue mobilisation campaign to recover its outstanding debt of over GH₵200 million from clients.
The debts included ground rent, land regularisation fees, lease renewals, service charges and other financial obligations.
The company is, therefore, offering a 15 per cent discount on all outstanding fees if payments are made in full by December 31, 2025.
That window of opportunity, it said, was to encourage clients to settle their debts before the deadline to avoid the full penalties, interests and enforcement measures.
Limited opportunity
At a media briefing in Accra yesterday, the Managing Director (MD) of the SHC Ltd, John S. Bawah, urged clients in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Cape Coast, Sunyani, Tamale, Bolga, Ho, Koforidua and other areas to take advantage of the discount period to avoid administrative and legal actions.
He described the campaign as “a limited-time opportunity for clients to clear their arrears and secure their ownership rights, indicating that the discount did not apply to house sales.
Mr Bawah said payment options included cash payments at their offices and mobile payments through a short code*442*1# as well as a merchant ID 247.
He said the company was finalising a software application to digitise records and improve client engagement and payment processes to enable clients to make payments and receive receipts instantly from the comfort of their homes.
Debt collection
On the debt collection, he observed that for the Greater Accra Region alone, the expected annual collection was GH₵90 million, but said they were currently collecting below GH₵50 million.
“For Greater Accra alone, if you look at our estate management services, and people that hold various forms of tenancy with us on a good year, we are supposed to be collecting close to GH₵90 million a year.
At the moment, we are taking below GH₵50 million per year in that area alone. Some of these debts go back as far as six years,” he added.
He said some of the debts were a result of people agreeing to payment plans but later abandoning them.
Legal action
Throwing more light on the processes, the SHC Ltd MD said with the backing of the SHC Ltd (Ejectment) Act,1970 (Act 322), the company would implement, as a last resort, the eviction of clients who failed to settle their debt, but mentioned that their preference was to encourage clients to pay.
He said a lot of the debtors were institutions that operated on state land, adding that the company was considering visiting such institutions to encourage them to pay their debts.
Mr Bawah said the goal was to see improvements in revenue collection and to ensure the sustainability and growth of state housing, while addressing the housing deficit in the country.
In that regard, he said, the company would launch its 24-hour Premium and Express Service Centre before the end of this year to provide fast, reliable and customer-friendly service for all payments, documentation and client support.
He said the company needed to generate money internally to fund its operations since it was not subvented.
