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GHANA JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION TO BUILD MEDIA VILLAGE FOR JOURNALISTS
The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Koans Estate Limited, a leading real estate developer to build a 100 housing units for journalists across the country.
The move is aimed at improving the living conditions of journalists by providing them with decent accommodation at a reasonable price. While an expandable two-bedroom house will go for GH₵60, 000, a three bedroom expandable house will cost GH₵80,000 but the terms of payment are yet to be agreed on between the GJA and Koans.
Launching the project at the Ghana International Press Centre in Accra, Deputy Minister of Works and Housing, Hon.Freda Prempeh, lauded the GJA leadership for its desire to ensure the welfare of its members. She described shelter as a prerequisite in life, for which reason the government attaches so much importance to it, adding that a process had been initiated to put up 10,000 affordable housing units across the country.
Touching on the housing deficit that is in the excess of 1.7 million, she said the government was under extreme pressure to deliver affordable houses to Ghanaians and described the Media Village project as a very good deal, considering the cost of the houses. She stated that the abolition of five percent real estate tax by the government was a move to give Ghanaians the opportunity to own houses.
The President of the GJA, Mr Roland Affail Monney, said many sceptics who heard about the project for the first time at the 21st GJA Awards did not believe it would come through. “In reality, today is the day of action and not perpetration of platitude. We are taking a key step to address one of the critical needs of journalists, which is decent residential accommodation.”
In the context of how expensive similar facilities in certain gated communities were, Mr Monney spoke about how some journalists in the country were poorly paid to be able to afford the houses in the Media Village, in spite of their reasonable prices.
The Chief Executive Officer of Koans Group of Companies, Mr. Kofi Anokye, said the Koans corporate village is the company’s new approach to meeting the housing needs of middle-class Ghanaians.
He said Koans Media Village, which was the first of its kind in Africa, was the result of the visionary leadership of the GJA President and his team who came knocking on the company’s doors.