Otumfuo offers land for construction of housing project in Kumasi.
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has offered 20 acres to the State Housing Company (SHC) Limited and an Israeli real estate developer for the construction of 5,000 affordable housing units in Kumasi.
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That is to ensure that the Ashanti Region has its fair share of housing projects being executed by the SHC and the Israeli company, IDM International, a subsidiary of the Israeli real estate construction giant, the Eldad Peri Group.
The land is sited around Pakyi on the Kumasi-Obuasi road.
Currently, surveyors from the palace and their counterparts from the SHC have started working on the land. The project starts in December this year.
Brief
Otumfuo Osei Tutu made the offer when the Managing Director of the SHC, Mr Samuel Sarpong, and the Vice-President of Business Development for IDM International, Mr Timor Gerasimov, paid a courtesy call on him at the Manhyia Palace and to brief him about the state of the development of the contract.
On March 10, 2016, Mr Sarpong, together with some executives of the company, signed a deal in Tel Aviv, Israel, with the Israeli company for the delivery of 20,000 housing units in Ghana.
Otumfuo
According to Otumfuo Osei Tutu, he would keenly be monitoring the progress of work at the construction site.
That, he explained, was to ensure the speedy development in the real estate sector in the area.
Apart from the huge shortfall in the housing delivery sector, he said, the cost of housing, especially in the mortgage industry, must be addressed.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu said the challenges in the housing sector had brought hardship to the ordinary people who wanted decent houses to lay their heads.
He said the current arrangement in the mortgage industry tended to put the buyers at a disadvantage and called for concerted efforts to address the issues to ensure that families could also secure some decent housing at affordable prices.
The Asantehene expressed the hope that the construction of the 20,000 housing units would offer jobs to the youth.
Project
Mr Sarpong said the project would be replicated in other major cities in the country.
He explained that most of the materials and personnel for the project would come from the country, a move targeted at giving meaning to the local content policy and providing employment to the youth.
For his part, Mr Gerasomov said his company was going to use a new technology in the execution of the project that would ensure that it was completed within three weeks.