A private investor is expected to take over the long-stalled Saglemi Housing Project to make the houses habitable.
Accordingly, five companies have submitted bids for the redevelopment of the housing units.
The bidders for the project are Afro Arab Properties Ltd, Quarm-LMI Consortium, Dredge Masters-Titanium, Broll Ghana Ltd, and Masiltin Group. Notably, Quarm-LMI Consortium and Dredge Masters-Titanium have formed consortiums in order to tackle the project’s complexities should they win bid.
The bids, which were received by the Ministry of Works and Housing, in Accra on Monday, following a Request for Proposal (RFP), marks a significant step towards completing the project.
The Saglemi housing project has been plagued by delays and controversy since its inception.
Addressing journalists during the bid opening ceremony, Minister for Works and Housing Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, provided an overview of the project’s history and government’s efforts to bring it to completion.
“We have gone through the process that was started all the way from Minister Atta Akyea’s era. In April, as I mentioned, we issued the request for proposals, and today, the 8th of July, which is the deadline, we have received five bids,” stated Minister Nkrumah.
The project, which began in 2012, was initially intended to build 5,000 homes in the Saglemi enclave with a $200 million loan.
However, only 1,506 partially completed and uninhabitable units are currently available with all of the $200 million being paid to the original contractors.
Efforts to resolve these issues have been ongoing since 2017 in court.
Under Minister Samuel Atta Akyea, the government started by valuing the work done and assessing what was needed to complete the project.
His successor, Mr. Francis Asenso Boakye, continued this by seeking Cabinet approval to involve a private partner to invest an estimated $100 million to finish the project.
This was eventually followed by Mr Oppong Nkrumah’s strategy of issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) in April 2024 to invite bids to redevelop the units.
He gave the assurance that the Ministry of Works and Housing is committed to transparency and fairness in the selection process and as the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) will assist in choosing an independent evaluation entity from a shortlist of four pre-qualified organizations namely KPMG, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), Deloitte and Touche LLP, and Ernst and Young.
This independent evaluation is part of the Ministry’s broader commitment to transparency, ensuring an impartial and thorough review of the bids.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah emphasized the importance of completing the Saglemi Housing Project to address Ghana’s housing deficit.
The country currently has a housing deficit of 1.8 million units and delivers about 40,000 housing units a year, which is insufficient to close the gap.
He highlighted the need to complete projects like Saglemi to prevent deterring future housing initiatives.
The coming weeks will be crucial as the bids are evaluated and a developer is selected.
The chosen developer will be tasked not only with completing the 1,506 units but also with developing essential infrastructure such as electricity, water supply, proper sanitation, and road networks.
The goal is to finally deliver habitable homes to Ghanaians and demonstrate that large-scale public housing projects can be successfully completed.
