Private Hostel Operators around the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have strongly criticised the Rent Control Department’s attempt to enforce price caps on student accommodation, warning that price controls are an economically failed policy that risks crippling Ghan’s higher education sector.
The response comes amidst recent moves by the Acting Rent Commissioner to regulate hostel fees and impose blanket restrictions on rate increases around KNUST.
The President and Chairperson of the KNUST Hostel Owners Association, Dr. Akwasi Owusu-Bi, addressing the media said, controlling the prices was not the best for the system but could rather create artificial shortages as nobody wanted to supply at government-mandated prices.
He also argued that student hostels did not fall under standard tenancy laws governed by the Rent Control Department but rather, operated under licensing laws from the Ghana Tourism Authority.
Counsel for the Hostel Operators, Michael Gyang Owusu, stated that the Association stands with a specific exemption within the Rent Act of 1963(Act 220).