Diaspora Mortgage to assist Ghanaians abroad

Many Ghanaians living abroad are reluctant to invest in the housing industry because of the attitude of their acquaintances and relatives who end up defrauding them, the Executive Director of Ghana Home Ideas, Mr Sam Danso, has observed.

He made this observation at the launch of the “Diaspora Mortgage and Savings Scheme” in Accra.

The scheme, which seeks to provide housing solutions to Ghanaians living abroad, is a collaboration between the Ghana Home Ideas and uniBank Ghana Limited.

According to Mr Danso, about 30 per cent of Ghanaians living outside who visited Ghana last year were willing to revisit the country due to the service scheme offered in the acquisition of land to build their own houses.

He advised Ghanaians living aboard to acquire their lands through the services of Ghana Home Ideas, also known as Universal Properties Ghana Limited, in order not to be defrauded.

Mr Danso said it was another way of bridging the gap between the Diaspora, local companies and other bodies operating within the housing sector.

The Director of Finance of uniBank Ghana Limited, Mr Ekow Daniels, explained that using the ‘save and own model’, one must have opened an account, which would be promoted and facilitated by the company, with the uniBank Ghana Limited.

Mr Daniels, who read a speech on behalf of Kwabena Duffour II, the Chief Operation Officer of uniBank, said it was the requirement of a client to save up to six months to reach a specific ceiling to enable him/her to have an opportunity to choose a house from any of the real estates developers in the country.

The company will then facilitate a mortgage for the client over a period of 15 to 20 years, he disclosed.

In a speech read on his behalf by the Deputy Director of the Diaspora Affairs Bureau (DAB) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mr Solomon Korbieh, the Director of Diaspora Affairs Bureau, Mr Philbert Johnson, observed that the ministry was making efforts to reduce the problems through the establishment of the DAB.

He explained that the sole purpose of the DAB was to address the concerns of Ghanaians in the Diaspora in the area of acquiring land and building houses to reduce the 1.7 million housing deficit in the country.
(GhanaWeb)