Economy to suffer if population is not checked – NPC

The National Population Council (NPC) says Ghana’s economy is heading towards a meltdown if urgent steps are not taken to control population growth .

Experts say Ghana’s population is growing faster than the economy; a situation they fear could derail sustainable development efforts.

To achieve exponential economic growth Ghana’s economic growth rate must grow six times higher than the population.

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However, Ghana’s population currently stands at 29 million with a population growth rate of 2.5% per annum and an economic growth rate of 8.5%.

Thus experts say if steps are not taken to manage the situation, this could soon create severe problems for Ghana’s socio-economic growth.

The Regional Population Officer for Greater Accra, Florence Hagan in a press briefing in Accra, urged households to adopt family planning methods to manage family sizes since productivity cannot match up with population.

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This, she said will significantly help control the size of the population as Ghana heads into the next population census in less than 2 years.

Ghana’s current population stands at about 29 million but experts are projecting an increase to about 31 million by 2020.

The National Population Policy targets reducing population growth from 3% in 2010 to 1% by 2020 and average total fertility (that is, the number of children a woman is likely to have during her reproductive years)  to 3% in the same year.

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But this target may not be met if the National Population Council does not get adequate funding from government to run advocacy campaigns.

Last month, the council proposed that each couple have 3 children at most in a bid to control population growth.