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This controversial proposal is encouraging Ghanaian women to give birth to no more than three children
If a woman goes beyond this sacred number of three, she could be denied access to free government services.
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That is according to a controversial proposal by the Executive Director of the National Population Council, Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah who argues it is necessary to ensure quality in human resource of the country.
“The way forward is to have a population policy implemented, the growth rate should be reduced and we have to talk about the quality of life,” she said.
According to Leticia Appiah, Ghana has in the last 30 years, maintained an astronomical growth rate of 2.5; comparative to the global average of 1.5.
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Compared to Norway for instance, which had a population of 3.5 million to Ghana's five million at the time of Ghana’s independence in 1957.
Fast forward 61 years later and today, there are 5.3 million people living in Norway while Ghana has a population of nearly 30 million.
Ghana's fertility rate, that is the average number of children per woman, currently stands at four, though that figure has fallen steadily over the last 30 years.
The 2016 Population and Housing Census pegged Ghana’s total population at 28.21 million while a United Nations estimates it to be 28.73 million as of August 20, 2017.
Mrs Appiah says this ‘birth marathon’ of some sorts has negatively affected the country’s economy and development.
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Ghana’s society has for long been against childbirth control as like the case of many African societies ‘children are not counted’ hence posing a challenge to efforts of arresting this runaway issue.
Many African communities also normally argue that having many children cushions the family due to the high infant mortality rate. However, according to BBC, there has not been a single death from measles in Ghana since 2002. Measles used to be one of the main infant killers, and the main justification for having many births.
Strangely enough, Ghana actually has had family planning policy since 1970 but usually, communities are just urged to embrace and practice the spacing of births with the hope that the spacing will lead to the birth of fewer children.
Despite not giving birth, Ghanaian men have been the biggest stumbling block in implementing the controversial policy while women have welcomed it with little resistance.
According to a new UN population report, by 2050 around 2.2 billion people could be added to the global population and more than half of that growth will occur in Africa.
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Africa will account for the highest population spurt with an additional 1.3 billion people on the continent.
In a world of climate change characterised by quickly diminishing natural resources, it is actually easy to not only understand but appreciate where Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah is coming from.
It is high time Africa needs to get out of bed and have a sober discussion about population. Africa is keenly watching Ghana’s first step will they sit down and talk in the sitting room or head to the bedroom business as usual, only time will tell.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's and do not necessarily reflect the stance of Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa.
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