It appears President John Dramani Mahama is not in a hurry to vacate the official resident of the Vice President at East Cantonments area of Accra, after spending huge sums of money to furnish his official residence at the seat of government – the Flagstaff House.

This is because the Mahama administration has commenced the construction of what is believed to be a new official residence for the Vice president, Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur at Cantonments.

The amount for the mansion is said to be in the region of several million dollars; and it is progressing rapidly, in spite of challenges facing the economy, for which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has come to bail Ghana out.

The new official residence of Veep Amissah-Arthur is being built on the land on which the former Nigerian High Commission was located-behind the Police Headquarters at Broz Tito Avenue on the Kumordi Hospital Road, close to where the Food Research Institute (FRI) of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSRI) is located.

Interestingly, Ghanaians were told that the Flagstaff House, when it was built, was supposed to serve as office and residence for both the President and the Vice President.

President Mahama still occupies his bungalow, which he moved into as Vice President while Vice President Amissah-Arthur is also staying in the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor’s residence-where he was residing when he was the Governor of the apex bank.

Attempts to speak to presidential spokesperson, Ben Dotsei Malor, were not successful as he did not answer calls to his phone.

Last year a contract for furnishing the presidential quarters at the Flagstaff House was awarded to Ebby Mays Furnishings at a cost of Ghc218,565.50 (2.2 billion old cedis) yet, President Mahama is still staying at the Vice President’s residence.