According to the Ghana Country Director of the World Bank, Pierre Laporte, over a quarter of Ghanaians live on less than $2.15 (GHS 25.31) per day.
That is approximately more than 7.7 million Ghanaians living on less than GHS 25.31 a day.
Speaking at the Bank’s End Poverty Day Celebration on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, Mr Laporte noted that high inflation experienced over the past couple of years has eroded the purchasing power of Ghanaian households as incomes have not kept pace, with the country’s current economic woes pushing many more Ghanaians into poverty.
By the end of 2022, nearly 850,000 Ghanaians had been pushed into poverty per a report by the World Bank.
Additionally, the country’s high inflation significantly worsened food insecurity in the country with a quarter of the population deemed to be food insecure at end-2022.
According to Pierre Laporte, jobs and employment are the surest way to reduce poverty and inequality in the country, hence, policymakers must intensify efforts to grow their economies, while protecting the most vulnerable and make well-targeted investments that create better jobs, lower income inequality, and boost productivity.
“While addressing the current crisis and restoring macroeconomic stability, Ghana needs to enact structural reforms to preserve its long-term growth prospects and build economic resilience. Bolstering long-term growth prospects will require policies that support investment and human capital development, as well as buttressing resilience and crisis preparedness, especially in agriculture and food systems,” he remarked.
“Well-targeted investments could create better jobs, lower income inequality, and boost productivity. Policymakers must intensify efforts to grow their economies, while protecting the most vulnerable. Jobs and employment are the surest way to reduce poverty and inequality. Impact is further multiplied in communities and across generations if we purposefully empower women and girls, and young people,” he added.
Available data indicates that almost 700 million people around the world live in extreme poverty as they survive on less than $2.15 per day which is the extreme poverty line and over half of those in extreme poverty live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Further data indicates that progress in global poverty reduction has stalled. After decades of considerable progress on poverty reduction, a period of shocks and crises (Covid and Russia-Ukraine War) has resulted in around three years of lost progress since 2020.
At the mid-point of the SDGs, the world is off track as at the current rates of progress, the world will likely not meet the global goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030, with estimates indicating nearly 600 million people will still be struggling in extreme poverty by then.
Source: Norvanreports