Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom has urged President John Evans Atta Mills to examine carefully the housing deal between the government of Ghana and the STX Korea.
“President John Evans Atta-Mills must take a very close and careful look at the STX Korea housing deal that is before Parliament”.
According to the 2008 presidential candidate of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), the bill which is currently before Parliament must be withdrawn and taken back to Cabinet for re-assessment.
Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom
He stressed that the bill does not pass the government’s “Better Ghana Agenda” test.
“This deal does not pass the “Better Ghana Agenda” test. The bill should be withdrawn from the legislature and taken back to Cabinet for re-assessment.
…The President himself must open his eyes wide and scrutinize all aspects of the bill that proposes to provide a long-term Government of Ghana guarantee to the Korean company to build thousands of housing units in our country,” Dr Nduom advised.
The CPP flag bearer made the observations in a press release over the weekend.
Though Dr Nduom admitted he admired the Koreans and their “unshakeable belief in self-determination”, he also believed that the housing project could well be executed by Ghanaians.
“It is also true that housing and construction in general tend to boost the domestic economy throughout the world. So what is wrong with this deal staring at us in Ghana? It just does not add up and looks like mortgaging a lot of our national economic interest for the benefit of a foreign entity that is desperate for a deal to repair its own financial foundation. This housing deal does not pass the Ghanaian national interest test. There is something very “neo-colonial” about this deal,” submitted the 2008 CPP flag bearer.
Ghanaian real estate companies, he said, are in desperate need of opportunity that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
“The financial institutions need financial support to be able to provide long-term capital that the housing construction sector needs. The new Pension Law needs vigorous promotion by the Mills Administration and perhaps some amendments to the law to make it easier for fund managers to invest in housing construction in a big way. The bill before Parliament does not help our people solve any of these problems. Neither does it offer opportunity for the domestic housing construction industry to develop and grow”, he noted.
Dr Nduom indicated that the Ghanaian private sector has tried its best to develop a real estate sector in the country, adding that “they need encouragement and direct government assistance.”
He wondered how the banking sector can be improved under such a deal and which commodities will be mortgaged and for how long as a result of this deal.
“How will the banking sector in Ghana be improved by this deal? How will local content be mandated to gain priority in this deal? How sound financially is STX to make this deal safe for years to come? Has an independent due diligence been done on this deal? Have we learnt from past mistakes made by previous administrations that meant well but caused problems and embarrassments by not scrutinizing deals well enough? Does this deal avoid the “wanting to score quick political point” temptation?” Dr Nduom raised these questions.
In his view, nothing will be lost by withdrawing this STX housing deal bill from Parliament for a more careful review.
“A lot of credibility and forward progress towards self-determination will be gained. Interestingly enough, we would have learnt a useful lesson from the Koreans themselves,” Dr Nduom said.
