By Agnes Ansah
Accra Aug 3, GNA- Some 673 Ghanaians have benefitted from the National Rent Assistance Scheme (NRAS) since its operationalisation in April this year.
About 406 of the beneficiaries are from Accra, 120 from Kumasi, Techiman, 68 and Takoradi, 46.
Koforidua and Tamale have so far recorded 18 and 15 beneficiaries respectively.
Mr Richard Acheampong, the Chief Executive Officer of Rent Masters and Manager, NRAS, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview.
He said 95 per cent of the beneficiaries worked in the formal sector, while the remaining five per cent were the informal sector.
The NRAS is an initiative launched by Government in partnership with Rent Masters to provide rent loans to both formal and informal sector workers with verifiable and regular income.
The Scheme provides eligible Ghanaians with a mechanism to pay low monthly rent, which effectively removes the need for rent advance payment.
An eligible person must be a Ghanaian, with a valid Ghana Card, an adult of 18 years and above, have verifiable employment and earned income.
The beneficiary must also have a verifiable bank statement or mobile money statement, and rent payable must not exceed 30 per cent of the household income.
Mr Acheampong expressed satisfaction at the implementation of the Scheme so far.
He noted that all the beneficiaries were fulfilling their monthly financial obligations to the Scheme, contributing greatly to its smooth implementation.
“Since we started, every single person that we have paid rent for has paid. Every month, everybody pays,” the Scheme Manager said.
Challenges
Notwithstanding the success stories, Mr Acheampong enumerated some few hurdles that the Scheme is facing.
He indicated one of the biggest challenges the Scheme was encountering was applications with fictitious documents.
“We have denied quite a number of applications, for fraud. There are instances where the bank statements that we request from people are edited,” he revealed.
Speaking on the actions that would be taken against such persons, Mr Acheampong said his outfit would soon submit particulars of such persons to the Ministry for Works and Housing for legal actions to be instituted against them.
He said another major challenge was the difficulty people faced in getting rooms to rent.
The Manager said about 340 people had had their applications shelved because they were not been able to get a room of their choice.
Mr Acheampong said many people especially those in the informal sector were unable to benefit from the Scheme because they were not able to submit the appropriate documents.
Despite the challenges, the CEO said the Scheme was helping to ease the financial burden on many people and urged young people to take advantage of the initiative.
GNA