The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel A. Jinapor, has charged the Lands Commission to speed up efforts to free up space for the commencement of the government’s affordable housing scheme as well as other projects on the Amrahia Dairy farms.

The Minister declared that affordable housing is a project that is dear to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s heart and has given express instructions to develop affordable housing schemes in the country to help provide housing for public officials and public servants.

Mr Jinapor said this when he, on Wednesday, 20 October 202, led a team from the Ministry and the Lands Commission to inspect the progress made on efforts to return some lands belonging to the original owners before the acquisition of the Amrahia Dairy Farms which is sandwiched between the La Nkwantanan Madina and Adenta Municipalities.

Addressing the media, Mr Jinapor disclosed that the Amrahia farms, which is about 1,381 acres wide, is a portion of state lands that the government is finding ways to put to better use and by this vision, the land is being demarcated for affordable housing among other development projects.

Explaining how this demarcation will be done, he said: "From my understanding, we have some 1381 acres of land here and there is a proposal for us to release part of this land to the Amrahia families. [Some] part is going to be for the farm and [another] part of it is going to be freed up [for] affordable housing".

He added that about 40 per cent of the sprawling land is to be handed over to the families and chiefs, which, he noted, will be in lieu of compensation to them with the remaining 60% going into agricultural prospects and the national housing project.

He, therefore, asked that they speed up work to ensure the closure of the proposal.

Mr Jinapor also called on the chief of Amrahia and other allied villages to work together to prevent any form of land litigation or misunderstanding, which will, in the end, jeopardise the efforts being made.

"The moment there is a split between these families and chiefs, it becomes a problem," he conceded.

For his part, the Technical Director of Lands, Mr Maxwell Nsarfoa, gave the assurance that by the end of the year, all the technical discussions on the land demarcation will be brought to a closure.

Accompanying the Minister with the Technical Director on this inspection was the Acting Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Mr James Ebenezer Dadson and other key officials from the Ministry and the Lands Commission.