More than 63% households in UWR extremely poor – GNHR
Out of a total of 137,561 household’s registered by the Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR) in the Upper West Region, 63.83 per cent are categorized as extremely poor households.
The Registry further categorized 18.48 per cent as poor households while non-poor households are 17.75 per cent.
The GNHR also registered a total of 618,378 people in these households comprising 296,101 males and 322,277 females.
Madam Evelyn Mawuko Ohene, the GNHR Management Information Systems (MIS) Specialist, made this known in a presentation during a data dissemination workshop in Wa.
The data puts adolescent population (10 – 19 years) at 26.36 per cent made up of 52.61 per cent males and 47.39 per cent females while 1.91 per cent of female adolescents have had at least one pregnancy to term.
Elderly population (60 years and above) per the data is 8.86 per cent comprising 38.23 per cent males and 61.77 per cent females with 77.13 per cent of them registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
There are also 4.87 per cent persons with disabilities and in the area of household toilet facilities; 65.93 per cent have no toilet facilities, 19.62 per cent have pit latrines and 7.63 per cent have access to public toilets.
On households main sources of drinking water, 72.74 per cent have access to borehole/pump/tube well, 8.68 per cent have access to pipe borne water outside dwelling, 5.04 per cent have access to public tap/stand pipe and 3.72 per cent have access to pipe borne inside dwelling.
Madam Otiko Afisah Djaba, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection said the Ministry established the GNHR to compile accurate and up-to-date database of households from which all social protection programmes in Ghana would select their beneficiaries.
She commended the staff for working hard to complete work in the Upper West Region, hinting that the GNHR was currently in the advance stage of commencing work in the Upper East and Northern Regions after which the remaining seven regions would follow suit this year.
The Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister also commended people of the Region for the tremendous support accorded the team of officers during the actual data collection process and called for the same level of support from the people of Upper East and Northern Regions.
Mr. Amidu Issahaku Chinnia, Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, noted that benefits of the GNHR data to key decision makers in the Region were enormous.
If effectively put to use, the data would not only help the Regional Coordinating Council and the various Municipal and District Assemblies in the Region to effectively target the poor and vulnerable for social protection programmes, but would also help achieve effective coordination of all social protection programmes in the Region, he said.
The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister pointed out that this would make it possible for departments and agencies involved in pro-poor interventions to better monitor, evaluate and effectively report on the impact and coverage of social interventions in the Region.
Source: GNA