Ghanaian business magnate and Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Sir Sam Jonah, has expressed deep concern over the rise of luxury real estate projects in Accra, alleging that many are being financed through “dishonest” and untraceable sources of wealth.
In a revealing interview on Accra-based Starr FM, the veteran corporate leader pointed to the growing number of high-rise apartments standing empty in the capital’s most affluent areas as evidence of widespread illicit financial activity.
“If you walk around my area, Airport Residential, Cantonments, or Labone, [look at] all the high-rise buildings going up. I mean, everywhere in the world, developers go to the bank to take loans for those developments,” he said.
Sir Jonah questioned how such massive developments could exist without any apparent financial accountability, emphasizing that under normal market conditions, developers with bank loans would rush to rent out their properties to avoid insolvency.
“Some of these apartments are all empty. Do you think that if money were collected from banks, banks would not have moved in?” he asked, implying that the absence of bank intervention or foreclosure reveals the true nature of the funding behind these buildings.
“What I’m saying is that they are being funded through sources which are not honest,” he declared, urging the public to take a closer look at the city’s skyline. “Go around and ask, ‘Why are apartments empty’? If you had gone to the bank to borrow money to build, you would ensure that those apartments are fully occupied.”
Drawing from his own experience in corporate financing, Sir Jonah explained that Ghana’s banking system is ill-equipped to support such large-scale property developments, especially given the high cost of borrowing.
“Ghanaian banks are not that well, and the balance sheets are not strong enough that they give you patient [capital]. The interest rates are just astronomical. You can hardly make it as a developer,” he said.
With bank lending rates hovering between 25% and 35%, Sir Jonah argued that constructing multi-million dollar apartments and leaving them vacant makes no financial sense unless the projects are backed by unregulated or illicit funds.
“Banks have not come to, you know, take them over,” he added, pointing to the lack of foreclosure activity as a red flag for possible money laundering or corruption.
He concluded that the unchecked inflow of such unexplained wealth into Ghana’s real estate sector reflects “an uncontrolled, almost insatiable quest for money at all costs,” warning that it is distorting both the economy and the moral fabric of the nation.
Source: Adomonline
ALSO READ: