Sefwi Wiawso State Housing project on course - SHC

The State Housing Company (SHC) has explained that its housing project at Sefwi Wiawso in the Western North Region was on course.

According to the SHC, the project has been grouped into five phases of acquisition of land, compensation to farmers, design and engineering work, site clearance and physical construction, marketing and disposal.

As far as the SHC was concerned, the project was in its 5th phase of physical construction, marketing and disposal.

The explanation by the SHS follows a video in circulation on social media purporting to suggest that there was no such project underway in the Sefwi Wiawso area contrary to what the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia put out last week at a public lecture.

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The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, on Tuesday at a public lecture commended the management and staff of SHC for resuscitating the company and mentioned a number of housing projects which were underway in various parts of the country.

The Vice President mentioned the Sefwi Wiawso housing project as well which is underway on a 500-acre land.

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Following the lecture, the video purporting to discredit the Sefwi Wiawso project has gone into circulation.

At a press conference in Accra Monday, the Communication Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Sammy Gyamfi made reference to the video and said the NDC sent people to the ground only to realise that there was no project on the ground.

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But reacting, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the SHC, Gordon Asare-Bediako said it seems the commendation by the Vice President did not go down well with some members of the opposition NDC as its officers have resorted to “throwing dust into the eyes of the unsuspecting public.”

He said “an NDC orchestrated video which has gone viral on social media has an NDC Officer in a bush at an unknown location telling his audience that SHC has not laid a single block on the said 500 acres of land at Sefwi Wiawso contrary to what Dr Bawumia said at the lecture.”

“For the records, the Vice President said "Construction of 500 housing units. Site Clearing started December 2019. First phase of 100 houses to be completed in 2020." He added that, that phase was "20% complete".

Mr Asare Bediako added that the “SHC is grateful to the Omanhene of the Sefwi Wiawso Traditional Area, Katakyie Kwesi Bumangama II for giving out about 500 acres of land to us for the construction of houses.”

“For the elucidation of NDC and their cohorts, a project starts with: 1. acquisition of land, 2. compensation to farmers, 3. design and engineering work done, 4. site clearance, 5. physical construction, marketing and disposal. We are currently at the 5th phase of the process."

Mr Asare Bediako insisted, “once again, Dr Bawumia did not state anything contrary to what is on the ground. State Housing Company has been resuscitated and the true meaning as the Nation's Number One Builder is now not in doubt.”

He insisted that the fact that block laying has not started on the ground does not mean that the entire project is non existent or not ongoing as the NDC was trying to portray and emphasized that project management involved various stages.