Government to review Rent Act, Real Estate Agency Act in fight against money laundering

Ghana removed from EU money laundering ‘grey’ list

National Housing Policy to manage the provision of social housing delivery

Plans to strengthen licensing of artisans in Ghana ongoing

Housing Minister, Francis Asenso-Boakye, has disclosed that the government has given the green light for the review of the Rent Act, Real estate agency Act to help deal with money laundering activities in the country.

According to him, most of the cases of money laundering are channeled through real estate businesses thus regulation of the sector will help deal with the issue.

“Cabinet has given the policy approval for the review of the Rent Act, the Real Estate Agency Act that is supposed to sanitise real estates’ transactions; so, it’s an area that is very important because these issues of money laundering in the Ghanaian sector is very much hinged on real estates’ transactions.

“If you talk about the housing authority, it’s currently before the Cabinet seeking policy approval so that we take the necessary steps afterwards. The National Housing Policy that was adopted in 2015 seriously recommends a housing authority to manage the provision of social housing delivery,” Myjoyonline.com quoted him.

Meanwhile, Ghana has been removed from the European Union’s ‘grey list’ of countries with strategic deficiencies in their Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) regimes.

The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) has however called on investors and the business community to be confident about engaging in international financial transactions as Ghana is safe from the activities of Money Laundering (ML) and Terrorist Financing (TF).

Asenso Boakye also decried Ghana’s licensing regime saying this allows for the employment of foreigners for artisanal jobs at the expense of indigenes.

He believes that a robust licensing system will give more Ghanaians the opportunity as they are qualified and fit for the job.

“In Ghana today, many developers prefer to use artisans from our neighbouring countries Togo, Benin, Cote D’Ivoire and most of the French countries surrounding Ghana all because they have a very robust licencing regime.”

“All their artisans now come to Ghana to practice and most developers prefer to use them as against our own. It is important that we strengthen our licencing regime and it’s an area that you have my fullest support,” he assured.