The beneficiaries cut across the six operational regions of the scheme – Greater Accra, Eastern, Western, Ashanti, Northern and Bono East.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, who made this known in an an­swer to a question in Parliament, Accra, yesterday indicated that that GH¢13,785,597 had since been dis­bursed to cover the rent advances of beneficiaries.

The question was asked by An­drew Dari Chiwitey, Member of Parliament (MP) for Sawla/Tuna/ Kalba, in the Savannah Region.

The scheme, a New Patriotic Party (NPP) 2020 electioneering cam­paign promise, seeks to make rental accommodation more accessible, affordable and convenient by taking away the burden faced by lower income households and the youth across the country of multi-year rent advance payments demanded by landlords.

By this, the scheme pre-finances the payments to the landlords with the beneficiaries repaying on month­ly basis to match the tenure of the rent.

It targets individuals in the formal and informal sectors with identifiable and regular income.

“Because many of our people find it very difficult to pay rent advance, the central theme of the scheme is to assist those who cannot afford to pay those rent advances.

“The scheme pays the landlords and the beneficiary pays monthly to the scheme,” Mr Asenso-Boakye, who is also MP for Bantama in the Ashanti Region, told the House.

According to him, “so far recovery rate has been 100 per cent”.

Mr Asenso-Boakye explained that benefiting from the scheme was competitive, and that only “meritori­ous people” would benefit from it.

“The distribution is based on the request each applicant has made. If you want GH¢2,000 as monthly rent allowance, you will be assessed based on your income.

“The Scheme uses bank state­ments and transactions assess an application and merit of same. So it all depends on how much an appli­cant wants and his or her capacity to repay,” Mr Asenso-Boakye said.

Meanwhile in earlier related ques­tion, the minister said GH¢900,000 has been spent on pre-implementa­tion activities and the launch of the Scheme in January this year.

The Scheme is being managed by a private sector property manager under the auspices of the Ministry of Works and Housing and other key stakeholders.