Wealth gap between men and women widens - Abugre

Mr Charles Abugre, a former Chief Executive Officer of the Savanna Accelerated Development (SADA), has said the wealth gap between men and women in the country continues to widen.

He said “one of the richest men in the country earns in a month more than the poorest women could earn in 1,000 years”, he said.

The wealthiest 10 per cent of Ghanaians consume more than the bottom 60 per cent of the population combined, a disparity, he said, that needed to be addressed.

Mr Abugre, the Chief Executive Officer of Tama Foundation Universal, was speaking in Tamale on Thursday during a public lecture organized by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) to mark its 20th anniversary.

The lecture was held under the topic: “25 years of Constitutional Democracy: What impact on inequality and inclusive development?"

The event held in collaboration with STAR Ghana was part of the 20th anniversary to commemorate the silver jubilee of the restoration of democratic governance.

He said women remain disproportionately represented in vulnerable employment and continue to earn less than men.

Mr Abugre said the rural savannah has contributed 75.4 per cent to Ghana’s poverty incidence and 84.3per cent of extreme poverty in the country.

He said Poverty has increased in some regions which include: Upper West Region from 70.7 per cent to 70.9 per cent; Upper East Region from 44.4 per cent to 54.8 per cent; Northern Region from 50.4 per cent to 55.7 per cent and Volta Region from 33.8 per cent to 37.3per cent.

He urged policy makers to give equal opportunities to women to address multiple socio-economic problems.

Mr Paul Osei-Kuffour, the Chief Executive Officer of CDD-Ghana, urged government to make judicious use of the decentralization process to ensure that discretionary powers are not exerted at the district levels.

This, he said, would ensure inclusiveness to promote conventions around the use of those powers to foster inter-branch and inter-party consultation and consensus building.

Mr Osei-Kuffour said government should develop better tools to ensure that the ministers and other appointees are fully transparent in their exercise of the legal and constitutional powers to avoid insider dealing and political partisanship.

CDD-Ghana is an independent non-profit research and advocacy institution dedicated to the promotion of democracy, good governance and economic openness in Ghana and throughout Africa.