The Executive Director, National Population Council of Ghana, Dr. Leticia Adelaide Appiah has hinted that High Population in the Northern part of Ghana is a contributing factor to the poverty rise in the Northern region.
According to Dr. Leticia Adelaide Appiah, Population factor has to be considered in everything that is done in the country, in that healthy population is needed for national development. The Northern region has the highest total fertility rate in Ghana which has resulted in high population growth of the region. Over population brings pressure on the limited infrastructure. Therefore the highest total fertility rate in the Northern regions could be a contributing factor to the poverty rise in these regions.
“If you look at these three Northern regions with high fertility, we have high mortality rate and high anemic children. There should be a fine line between reproduction and production. If we spend all our energy and our time and our resources reproducing, what time will we get for production for ourselves. It is very important that we look at the population growth and have a national debate on it,” she noted in a phone interview on GBC’s Uniiq FM Breakfast show on Monday.
According the Ghana Statistical service report, the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West Regions continue to have the highest levels of poverty in the country. These three regions contribute over 40% of the National Poverty Gap of Ghana. Upper West contributes about 16.4%, Upper east 15.3% and northern region 25.2%.
Story by: Mavis Arthur
