The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Youth and Sports are set to build an ultra-modern accommodation facility for female head porters, popularly known as ‘Kayayei’ in Accra, Ghana.
According to Dr. Albert Touna Mama, as part of the social responsibility of the IMF, it is customary that when the IMF boss visits a country, she selects a charity she wants to support.
This was this was revealed when the IMF country representative to Ghana, Dr Albert Touna Mama, paid a courtesy call me at the Ministry on Friday, May 10, 2019 and present at the meeting was the Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority, Mr. Emmanuel Sin-nyet Asigri and Chief Director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Mr. Frank Quist.
The IMF local office in Ghana has therefore decided to build a center in Accra for female head porters especially when the IMF boss met and interacted with traders in Agbogbloshie market and ‘Kayayei’ during her visit to Ghana.
The facility when completed will not only provide accommodation to ‘Kayayei’ but also help them to learn a skill so they can move out of the streets permanently.
In response to the proposal by IMF Country Representative, Deputy Minister in charge of Youth and Sports, Hon. Perry Curtis Kwabla Okudzeto lauded the IMF for coming on board to support female head porters in Ghana, indicating that providing accommodation to them is an initiative that has already been captured in the manifesto of Government and so establishing one with support from the IMF is something Government will gladly want to be involved in.
According to him, it is exciting to note that the IMF is stepping out of the financial sector and entering into the social space and they are halcyon to be a beneficiary of this move, adding that, the focus of Government is to reduce the disparities between the rural and urban areas, that is why Government has decided to execute the one village one dam especially in the north where the women usually migrate from.
Hon. Okudzeto guaranteed that, there will be farming all year round reducing the tendency of moving down south during the dry season, revealing that, Government has created a development Authority for the Northern belt to create more opportunities plus the roll out of the one district-one factory initiative.
However, the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Hon. Perry Curtis Kwabla Okudzeto stated that, all these measures will take time, that is why they welcome IMF’s intervention of providing accommodation and a training centers for ‘Kayayei’ whilst the government roll out more measures to reduce the ‘Kayayei’ phenomenon.
