Rise-Ghana kicks against construction of hostels for Kayayei - NGO

A Non-Governmental Organization based in the Northern region, Rise Ghana has kicked against the government’s move to construct hostel facilities for head-porters also known as ‘Kayayei’ in Accra.

According to the NGO, the issue of constructing hostels will rather encourage rural-urban migration.

This comes on the back of the sod-cutting ceremony to begin construction of a four-storey hostel facility at Adjen Kotoku and other parts of Accra to accommodate 300 head porters.

Speaking on the Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tetteh Thursday, the Executive Director of Rise Ghana, Awal Ahmed Kariama admonished the government to rather solve the problem at source where these head porters are from.

“We need to have a system down here in the North where we will be able to place children who have completed Junior High School in the public sector and government places so they can earn some money. At the end of the day, people are doing this because they want to put food on the table. They want to be able to acquire the necessary tools that they need to go to school. If you interview some of them, they will tell you they want to become an apprentice but they cannot afford their apprenticeship fees.

“So what the government needs to do is identify the challenges of the people which is the source of the problem. The government should put things in place so these people can have the opportunity to feed themselves and earn the income that they need. So that they won’t find it attractive to travel to these places,” Mr. Karima stated.

He further added that building these hostels will create another problem of rural-urban migration as many of them will love to come due to the hostels.

“Today if we have 100 people coming from the North to engage in a Kayayei job. And if you build a hostel that has the capacity to accommodate 100 people, that hostel will attract another set of 100 or 200 people. What we tell these ladies is that most of their sisters sleep on the street and they are exposed to all forms of risk. There have been instances where some of them have been abused sexually, some of them have been killed and others.

So, we use that as a basis to create awareness for people not to go. So, the situation that now we have a shelter, that argument alone will not stand. It is going to open up the floodgate for more people who want to travel to engage in that business,” Mr. Kariama explained.