The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has insisted that it owns properties at the light industrial estates located at New Weija in Accra contrary to claims by the Ghana National Association of Garages (GNAG).

According to SSNIT, it owns the estate through its subsidiary, the Ghana Industrial and Commercial Estate Limited (GICEL), explaining that it acquired the said land in 1996 and duly compensated the Chiefs of Sempe for the property.

“GICEL is an investee company of SSNIT whose interest is protected by the Trust. We urge members of the public to disregard the claims of GNAG or any other group or association concerning the Estates,” SSNIT said in a statement.

The Ghana National Association of Garages with a membership of over four thousand had during a demonstration in March 2021 called on the government to assist it in taking back properties at the light industrial estates which it claimed belonged to the association.

The group said it acquired the property through an executive instrument issued by former President Jerry John Rawlings, but financial difficulties forced it to give it out to GICEL to operate for a period.

GNAG lamented that efforts to get back the property have yielded no positive result.

But SSNIT in refuting GNAG’s claims explained that, it at the time paid one billion four hundred and twenty-nine million, four hundred and twenty-eight thousand old cedis (¢1,429,428,000.00) as compensation to the Sempe Chiefs for the land.