Government launches National Rental Assistance Scheme to support youth

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia earlier today joined the Works and Housing Ministry to launch the National Rental Allowance Scheme, a loan which will be granted to the youth to allow them pay for their rent allowance to their respective landlords which will later be deducted on a monthly basis. The move comes at the back of the governing New Patriotic Party’s pledge made in their 2020 manifesto to pay rent for Ghanaian youths.

The government in 2022 hinted of plans to roll-out the National Rental Assistance Scheme to support low-income earners to have a decent rented accommodation in the country. The move comes at the back of the New Patriotic Party’s pledge made in 2020 manifesto to pay rent for Ghanaian youths in its second term to cushion the youth from the challenges of high rent and lengthy rent advances. At a conference to launch the program, Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia explained the purpose of the scheme saying this will reduce the challenges the youth in the country faces in getting rented accomodation.

In an interview with Pan African Television’s George Yawson Vineh, some youth have expressed excitement about the initiative but are questioning its implementation process.

Ghana’s rental accommodation has typically been characterized by inflexible demands of landlords to collect advance rent from prospective tenants. This imposes a huge burden to mobilize a year’s rent, in contravention of the provisions in the existing Rent Act, 1963 (220).

story by George Yawson Vineh.