Last year, I paid off the final instalment of my mortgage yay! They told me it would take about 8 weeks to get all the paper work. I thought, it’s Ghana, it will probably take around 3-6 months. It took a year for me to finally get the papers.

Initially they had asked me to chase up one of the papers. I didn’t, simply because I paid $500 for the privilege of getting someone else to do the leg work and Ghana Home Loans (GHL) are a lot quicker to take my money than to reimburse me any money they owed so I said I would wait.

In June of last year, I started chasing up on the progress of the documentation, at that point they had taken my cash so were very slow in responding (I am being very generous, I just got air). As I knew I was going to be in Ghana at the end of the year however, I decided to cool down.

So, in January of this year, I took myself to their office to ask what’s happening, and I was told there had been some delay due to a complication (I stopped listening at that point, the lady was stuttering so whatever she was saying was BS). The adviser asked me to come back the following week but as I was leaving before it would be ready, I asked my cousin to follow up for me.

Now, I had called and written to them back in March 2018 and said, “Further to our conversation today, I attach ID for Mr X who I would like to act on my behalf of all transactions going forward, that includes signing of documents, collection of any documents and any financial transactions”. Simple enough you would think. Obviously too simple or rather too complicated for simple minds.

I don’t know why I didn’t re-send the email but at around 1pm last Monday my cousin called to say he was at the office and they refused to give him the documents. I then had to re-send the email saying, “the below still stands”. What I really wanted to say was “are you dumb, can you not read and follow instructions”, but I am trying to be more zen in my old age and worry less so kept it short and sweet.

So now, a year after I paid it off, and 8 years after I purchased the property, I can say it is mine now. Hopefully one day soon I can sit and enjoy the fruits of my very hard labour (I especially think of this on cold and stormy days like today).

At the time of purchase, GHL was probably the only decent mortgage company in Ghana but most banks are offering mortgages at good rates. If you are thinking of taking out a mortgage I would look around. Stanbic bank is still on the top of my list as I haven’t really heard a bad word about them. I would probably try there first. However, we are talking about Ghana so the process is going to be slow, but some places will be less painful than others.