The Executive Director of the National Population Council, Leticia Adelaide Appiah is advocating for the government to use incentives to encourage Ghanaians to use\u00a0family planning methods\u00a0as a way of controlling the country\u2019s fast-growing population.<\/p>\n
According to her, the population growth rate if not checked would reduce the quality of human resource in the country and stagnate economic development.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”XQ5i9p8Sm3iu0zxS6HAdPNkRZKfwbLEq”]Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong> on Monday, Dr. Appiah said despite the importance of population growth, it must be regulated to correspond with economic development.<\/p>\n \u201cPopulation growth is good, but it should be regulated so that it does not outstrip economic development,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The 2016 Population and Housing Census pegged Ghana\u2019s total population at 28.21\u00a0million.<\/p>\n China is among the few countries in the world who have adopted a major population control policy to restrict childbirth.<\/p>\n In 1979,\u00a0the country started the \u201cone child per family policy\u201d (Juali Li 563) which stated that citizens must obtain a birth certificate before the birth of their children.<\/p>\n A state government in India has instituted a policy to offer newlyweds a cash grant of 5000 rupees or $106 to wait two years to have their first child. Other states have also made having more than two children a disqualification from holding public office.<\/p>\n But Dr. Leticia Appiah said Ghana must not necessarily place a cap on the number of children couples are allowed to produce but reward those who take up family planning initiatives such as spacing and delaying childbirth.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the person wants it [a child] you cannot deprive them\u2026Our problem is population growth, why don\u2019t we incentivize family planning uptake?\u201d she quizzed.<\/p>\n She called on the government to make family planning services more accessible to encourage its patronage.<\/p>\n Dr. Appiah further noted that government could consider placing a cap limit on the number of children per family to benefit from some of its\u00a0social intervention programs to encourage family planning.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Jonas Nyabor\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Executive Director of the National Population Council, Leticia Adelaide Appiah is advocating for the government to use incentives to encourage Ghanaians to use\u00a0family planning methods\u00a0as a way of controlling the country\u2019s fast-growing population. According to her, the population growth rate if not checked would reduce the quality of human resource in the country and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,11],"tags":[10364,3,10365],"yoast_head":"\n