Ghana’s youthful population will peak till 2050

Dr Kwame Pianim, a renowned Economist, says the youthfulness of Ghana’s population will remain relatively at its peak level from 2030 till 2050 before it starts transitioning to the structure of a matured demography.

He said 15 to 29 year cohorts would be around 20 per cent of the country’s population and that a section of the demographic bulge in Africa and Ghana would be youthful while Europe, North America and Japan would be all grey by 2030.

Dr Pianim said this at the first Demographic Summit 2021 in Accra by the Ghana Population Council on the theme, “Ghana’s challenge demographic bulge 2030 and beyond”.

He said Ghana’s current demographic position of young workers could be of great dividend when managed well.

Dr Pianim said some challenges associated with a youthful population were, feeding, shelter, education, and provision of meaningful healthcare and employment and said Ghana needed pragmatic measures to address those issues by 2030 to benefit from its youthful population.

He said to transform the challenge into economic and social dividends, there was the need to focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education to keep the bulk of 15 to 29 olds in school and training for nation building and professions.

The Economist said that would also strengthen the budding generation of ICT savvy and social media aficionados who were globally connected and active.

Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah, Executive Director, National Population Council, said the summit was to provide a platform for stakeholders to deliberate on population challenges and learn from each other.

She said the ripple effect of the population bulge had an impact on the economic and social development of the nation, hence, it was in the interest of the Council to make the data “visible” to inform decision making.

Source: GNA