Mills Pledges Government Support For Population Programmes

Accra, (Greater Accra) 17 Oct.,

Accra, (Greater Accra) 17 Oct., The Vice-President, Professor John Atta Mills, today inaugurated the reconstituted National Population Council (NPC) and said government is committed to support the implementation of population programmes. The 23-member council, which is to advise government on population and its related issues, include representatives of religious bodies, traditional councils, state and private organisations. It is under the chairmanship of Professor George Benneh, former vice-chancellor of the university of Ghana. In an inaugural address read on his behalf, the Vice-President said the planning and successful implementation of population programmes require substantial financial and human resources, adding "the government will continue to commit resources to these programmes." Prof. Mills said Ghana was the third country south of the Sahara to adopt an explicit and comprehensive population policy which contributed significantly to the creation of awareness on population issues. The gains of the policy were however modest in terms of overall achievement due to "the absence of a well-articulated and co-ordinated institutional machinery to facilitate the translation of the policy objectives into action plans," he said. He said the NPC was established in 1992 "as a demonstration of governments commitment to population issues" which he said was in conformity with the 1992 Constitution. Prof. Mills noted the crucial interrelationship between population and development and said ''since population is both the principal instrument of and beneficiary of national development efforts, population policy should necessarily be concerned with a wide spectrum of developmental issues.'' He expressed fears that with the current growth of three per cent, the nation's population, estimated at 18.1 million will increase to 20 million by the year 2000. This, he said, will create an even higher dependency ratio and place considerable strain on national resources.