Acting Rent Control Commissioner, Frederick Opoku, has urged Ghanaian Tertiary students to file formal applications for hostel fee assessments to trigger Rent Control Department action.
According to the Rent Control Commissioner, he has done enough in going across the country to ensure that hostel fees are reduced, adding that he will no longer personally visit facilities.
He explained that students must formally apply to the Rent Control Department for an assessment of their hostel fees, adding that the department has waived the application fee for students.
Frederick Opoku also notes frustration with students who only send direct messages complaining instead of following the legal process, stating that this does not help him assist them because he must work within the confines of the law.
He further revealed that the department plans to shift focus to commercial rental properties as part of broader efforts to regulate the rental space.
Speaking in a video shared on X, the acting Rent Commissioner stated, “You cannot sit in your homes and hostels and ask the Rent Commissioner to ensure that hostel fees are reduced. You have a duty to contribute to the enforcement process.
I have done enough, and I am not moving to any hostel again. I cannot go around from hostel to hostel asking hostel owners to reduce their fees. Make an application for me to act on, or shut up and go and pay your hostel fees”.
In related news, Bishop Akwasi Owusu-Bi, the President of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Hostel Owners Association, has told the Acting Rent Control Commissioner, Frederick Opoku, to go to East Legon to control rent prices.
Frederick Opoku has recently been touring some hostels and raising questions about what he describes as exorbitant charges.
According to Frederick Opoku, he recommends price regulation to protect students from what he considers excessive hostel fees.
However, Bishop Akwasi Owusu-Bi, speaking in an interview, argued that controlling prices is not the best solution to the problem.
According to him, if the government wants to control prices, it should start from East Legon where prices are quoted in dollars.
The President, KNUST Hostel Owners stated, “I remember in 1988, the government embarked on the Structural Adjustment Programme. It came out clearly that controlling prices wasn’t the best for the system. It rather made items run short because nobody wanted to go by the government prices”.
“So, then they hit all the items and you had to go through the back door to get them. So, when the programme realised that this was the effect of it, they scrapped controlling prices in Ghana,” he stated.
“So, when all of a sudden we heard that rent control was coming up, I was like, so what are we doing? When did we begin to control prices in Ghana?” he asked.
He added, “If you want to control prices in Ghana, where do we start from? If we are starting from the Ministry of Works and Housing, that’s the housing rent, why don’t you start from East Legon? Why don’t you start from Nhyiaeso and all those places?”
“They should begin from East Legon, where prices are quoted in dollars and not in cedis. That’s where they should begin from”.
“And not when a group of people have come together to put up accommodation for students whom the students cannot be accommodated on campus, and you think you want to defend such students.
“If we withdraw our services, what do you do?” he asked.
Watch the video below:
Help us help you – Rent control commissioner to students #GHnow pic.twitter.com/D0DIVFRx7R
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