Ghana’s migration trend reversing – Prof Millar
Prof David Millar, Pro Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS), has said migration to the country has taken a different dimension with many people moving from the south to the north.
He said “more people were now trooping from the southern sector of the country to the north to seek greener pastures in the mining and the forest sectors of the economy”.
Prof Millar said this in Tamale on Tuesday during a consultation workshop on the National Migration Policy.
He said due to the way more people were migrating, from one place to the other especially the shift from south to the north of the country for different purposes, there was the need for policy formulation on migration.
He said a Draft on National Migration Policy (NMP) has however, been put up by the Centre for Migration Studies (CMS), University of Ghana in consultation with the National Migration Unit of the Ministry of Interior to help streamline the issue of migration.
He said such a migration would help harness the potentials and economic opportunities in the north and called on the government to create an enabling economic environment in the north to attract investors.
“The people who migrate from the south to the north are seeking greener pastures in the mining and the timber industry in the north”, he explained.
He has also advised the country’s policy makers not to expel the Fulani herdsmen but rather the herdsmen should be properly registered and captured in the tax net to generate more revenue for development.
Prof Mariama Awumbila, Director of the Centre for Migration Studies, said the aim of the NMP was to bring about guidance for a holistic migration in Ghana.
The workshop which was sponsored by the International Organization of Migration (IOM) was attended by participants from different organizations and departments who had a role to play in migration in the country and students from CMS of the University of Ghana.
Mr Daniel Kweku Sam, speaking on behalf of the IOM, said the organization was to develop mechanisms for the migration development and urged all participants to encourage and promote the Migration Policy.
Prof Stephen Owusu Kwankye, a consultant on the Drafting National Migration Policy, said in their implementation of the third draft, some organizations were consulted together with Ghanaians in the Diaspora especially in Italy and the United States.
He said that their vision was to promote the benefits and minimize the costs of internal and international migration through legal means.
Source: GNA
I envisage the northern ghana becoming a booming industrialized area
With the level of hospitality coupled with vast land and safety, including other natural resources yet to be tapped , I am not surprised at Prof’s assertion , i only hope northern brains are developed and mental faculties changed and directed towards investment and utilization of these opportunities rather than wars.
Indeed there are so many untapped resources which need to be unearthed thus for a long term investment Northern Ghana will be the ideal place. Gone are the days whereby people were oblivious and were of the misconception that such places were for the deprived
I think people are taking the recognition of UDS as an opporturnity to do their businessess in the upper region of the country and which indeed is sign of development..
Couple to prof’s intelligent discovery, tertiary education (uds) has greater contribution towards the dimensional Change of migration hence, a humble appeal to policy makers to note that when this institution is up graded to a modern structure like knust, legon or ucc, i would not be surprise to see or hear that northern Ghana is having a booming economy without even sada.
I think de presence of UDS is serving as a catalyst to the current reversing trend of migration. I would therefore appeal for the total development of UDS in terms of infrastructure to help stimulate the economic development of the upper regions.
I beg to differ a bite with prof assertion.visit all “galamsey” operating centres:Prestea,Kenyasi,Dediasu,Konongo,Obuasi ETC all in the south and you will find only northerner’s.
It makes sense that the crowding in the south is finding serenity in the somewhat virgin North. Let the planners be on guard, lest a skewed investment pattern is sure to turn inhabitants to “victims of degradation”
PROF, WHERE DO WE PUT Dediasu, Prestea, Kenyasi, Konongo, n Obuasi, I THINK THIS MIGRATION IS DUE TO THE PRESENCES OF UDS, TOTAL DEVELOPMENT IS SUPPOSED TO BE GIVEN TO THE SCHOOL IN TERMS OF infrastructure.
Yes, i agree with prof. but i think the major pull factor is the University for Development Studies. Just as many students are trooping to the three northern regions to pursue various degrees in areas that are not offered in other universities, entrepreneurs, traders, tourists, estate developers, are all taking advantage of the opportunities offered by UDS to migrate to the north.