GSS multidimensional poverty figures worrying – Ahafo Ano North MP

The Member of Parliament for Ahafo Ano North, who also serves as the Vice Chairman of the Local Governance Committee in Parliament, Suleman Adamu Sanid, has described the 2024 multidimensional report released by the Ghana Statistical Service as worrying and scary.

A recent report by the Statistical Service identified a total of 7.3 million Ghanaians, representing 24.3% of the household population, as multidimensionally poor. This type of poverty measures deprivation across several dimensions simultaneously, including education, health, and living standards. Of these individuals, 43.8% are experiencing severe poverty.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) assesses the simultaneous deprivations experienced by people in a locality, which are essential to guarantee a dignified life, such as access to clean water or electricity, good health or nutrition, and employment.

Ghana’s Multidimensional poverty captures overlapping deprivations experienced by the poor across thirteen non-monetary indicators in four dimensions: education, health, living standards, and employment.

Addressing the media at a workshop for the Members of the Local Government Committee organized by the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs and the Ghana Statistical Service in Accra, the Ahafo Ano North MP questioned why many interventions by the government and other successive administrations have not yielded the needed results.

"The numbers we are seeing today are revealing and a bit scary. At a casual observation, this clearly tells you that there are a lot of poor people in the country. We need to interrogate the data and find out why the interventions we have put in place over the years have not given us the results we want. We need to ask the right questions. The figures are worrying," he said.

According to him, policymakers and researchers must engage with the Statistical Service to collectively handle the economic implications of the report, adding that the country has not effectively utilized data provided by the Statistical Service.

The Ranking Member of the Local Government Committee and MP for Ho Central, Benjamin Kpodo, has also urged the government to intensify interventions to alleviate the hardship of the citizenry.

"The survey can inform us as policymakers to determine where to implement multiple interventions that can lead people out of poverty. It is necessary that policymakers intervene in those directions," he said.