Country Director of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), Philip Smith has bemoaned the worrying trend of the widening poverty gap between northern and southern Ghana despite the record economic growth and development seen in the last 12 years.
The DFID Country Director made the observation when he addressed participants of a ceremony to launch the Poverty Profile of Ghana from (2005 to 2017) by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), at the La Palm Royal Hotel.
“We all know that Ghana is one of the few sub Saharan countries to achieve the SDG one target of halving extreme poverty between 1991 and 2015. However, even as economic growth in Ghana has accelerated, inequalities persist” the DFID Country Director said.
Director Smith, observed that the rising inequality trend is a huge challenge for government and bridging this gap ought to be the Main focus of government’s widely appreciated agenda of achieving a “Ghana Beyond Aid”.
“This new poverty data comes at a critical time not just to establishing progress towards the SDGs but also to help inform the focus of the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda. Let me be clear, the President’s vision for a self reliance Ghana is inspiring and applauded by the UK and all development partners, but the “Ghana beyond Aid” agenda must address the issue of why despite record economic growth, inequality in is rising” the DFID Country Director said.
Meanwhile, a new report by the United Nations shows that millions of Ghanaians are mired in poverty rather than benefiting from the country’s booming economy.
This came to bear when the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights submitted the results of his 10-day fact-finding mission to Ghana in April to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
According to the U.N. Investigator Philip Alston although Ghana is the fastest growing economy in Africa and one of the three fastest growing economies in the whole world, the rich get richer while a chunk of the population wallow in poverty.
The poor are losing out amidst the country’s growing wealth because Ghana spends 50 percent less than its peer countries in Africa on social protection, the report said.
