Establish mortgage institutions instead of Nat’l Development Bank – Gov’t told

Dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Professional Studies, Dr. Kwaku Mensah has advised government to focus on establishing mortgage institutions to help make housing affordable instead of establishing the National Development Bank. According to Dr. Mensah, who was speaking on The Key Points program on TV3 Saturday, the establishment of mortgage institutions will help address Ghana’s housing deficit. Finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta announced that funding has been secured for the establishment of the National Development Bank in 2020 to refinance credit to industry and agriculture as a wholesale bank. The minister said this while presenting the 2020 budget statement on the floor of parliament on Wednesday, November 13. Read:Gov’t to set up National Dev’t Bank in 2020 It is on the back of this announcement that Dr. Mensah is suggesting government divert the funds secured for the National Development Bank into an institution which will be of more use to the country. “I think I have been one of the few who have always never wanted government to go into establishing additional banks. If you want a policy financial institution, you already have three major ones; GCB, ADB, NIB. It behoves on the government, the majority shareholder to see how best they can review their structures.” Dr. Mensah said, “The Ghanaian real estate sector has not yet developed, so I expect the government to come up with a bank, then I think we should be looking at a bank purposely to finance real estate.” He argued Ghana’s real estate sector needs more support from the government to thrive and be at par with its counterparts across the globe and to also provide affordable housing in Ghana. “If we are talking about credit, one of the areas has to do with the real estate business. We have a deficit in our housing sector.” “Today, I would have been happy if the government was going to establish a bank, mortgage institutions to assist the youth in getting shelter. “This sector is booming, every economy mostly thrives on the real estate structure sector.” By Irene Amesimeku|editors.3news.com|Ghana