Some Oblivious Causal Factors Of Poverty In Ghana

Some Oblivious Causal Factors Of Poverty In

Ghana

Atta Kodua Boateng, Zuo HongYuan

Abstract: Poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon that has lived with humanity till today‘s globalized world. This phenomenon in Ghana is generally caused by a lot of factors such as poor leadership and governance, unemployment, illiteracy, bribery and corruption, poor healthcare, conflicts, natural and man-made disasters, inequality and discrimination, low investment in the agricultural sector etc. Just like a lot of attempts have been made by regions and countries, international organization such as the United Nations, European Union, Africa Union, and International Monetary Fund as well as non-governmental organizations to fight and ameliorate the phenomenon, Ghana has also made series of efforts. However, in all its efforts, Ghana has not experienced a significant progress as it is in some other African countries and some regions as South Asia. This raises a question about the effectiveness of the approaches that are being used by Ghana in its fight against poverty. It also suggest that there are some oblivious factors that are causing poverty in Ghana. This paper has therefore used questionnaires as its primary source of information, as well as the library and news reports as its secondary sources of information to identify some of these oblivious factors as religion, road accidents, lack of family planning, poor or lack of maintenance culture, poor attitude towards work and high demand for foreign goods and services. The paper has also discussed how these oblivious factors come about and has suggested how they can be remedied with respect to the current socioeconomic situation of Ghana.

KEYWORDS; Poverty, Poverty alleviation, Prevalence of poverty, Oblivious factors of poverty, Public policy,

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1

INTRODUCTION

Poverty has been in existence since the creation of humanity and has remained the hardiest phenomenon that causes a disturbing malady in the world, especially in the developing countries. It could be said to be dreadful than Malaria, HIV/AIDS, and EBOLA that are known to be the highest and fastest killer diseases. In fact nothing in the history of humanity can measure up to its rapidity of carnage [1]. Poverty has been defined in so many different ways with regards to the condition in which it is being defined, the time as well as the place where it is being defined. As defined by the UN in 1995, poverty is ―a condition that portrays extreme denial of the fundamental human needs such as food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, healthcare, shelter, education and information.‖ [2], [3]. Unfair treatment as a result of prejudice, segregation, and imposition of decision, gender bias and favoritism all constitute poverty. Poverty as a multifaceted social canker cannot be said to have one fundamental cause but rather many different and interwoven causes. Member states in the year 2000 at the United Nations millennium summit accepted the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to serve as a yardstick in their development policies within a period of fifteen years. The most important and for that matter first on the list of goals was ―To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.‖ In the foreword of the 2015 millennium goal report, All the 189 countries including Ghana that in one accord accepted the millennium declaration, pledged to ―leave no stone unturned to free fellow men, women, and children from miserable poverty and degrading state of extreme poverty. With all the efforts made over the period of 15 years and more to reduce poverty as it is predominant in the international development discussions and policies, the situation has not gotten any better. This unsatisfactory achievement, suggest how ineffective the World‘s approach to achieving the Millennium Development Goals internally, regionally and sub-regionally has been over the past years [4]. This therefore serves as an alert to go back to the drawing board and reconsider the policies and approaches implemented to reduce poverty and also pay attention to pertinent global matters like aids, debt and trade. Consequently, after several discussions with member states and associates, open working group consultations,

School policy, School Feeding program, Capitation grant, Planting for Food and Jobs, Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) and many [5]. These efforts have led Ghana into achieving a stabilized aggregate of growth of over 7% every year since 2005. Despite this remarkable achievement by which Ghana attained the middle income status rank after rebasing the economy in 2010, coupled with the finding of the offshore oil and the comparatively high per capita growth, the country has not made any much difference in her fight against poverty. This draws attention to the effectiveness of the strategies that are being used. According to my investigations, the strategies are effective owing to the fact that there have been some achievements, except that the poverty problem Ghana is solving goes beyond the usually known causal factors and from all indications, attentions have not been drawn to some other factors that may also be causing poverty in Ghana. This study was therefore used to identify and analyze some oblivious phenomenon that apart from what might be general to the world, member states or Ghana cause and maintain poverty in Ghana. In solving a problem, strategies are formed to overcome the problem after identifying the causes [6]. Hence this paper brings out some appropriate socio-economic measures to reduce or alleviate poverty in the current socioeconomic situation of Ghana and discusses what poverty alleviation policies Ghana needs.

2. RESEARCH DESIGN

I used both Descriptive and Explanatory Research Designs for the research. This is because the research tried to understand and identify oblivious causal factors of the phenomena with the aim of prescribing strategies or policies to overcome this societal ailment.

2.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

All the ten regions of Ghana were selected for the investigation for the purpose of generalization. The research gave recognition to all people in the ten regions as potential respondents, but for the inconveniences such as high cost, overmuch time-consumption that come with large size of a respondent population, the researcher could not involve every single respondent. For this reason, I used convenient sampling to select 12 people from each of these ten regions to give a total of 120 respondents for the purpose of this study. I used the convenience non- probability sampling method for the selection as it gives easy and convenient access to respondents. In addition to the convenience non-probability sampling, the snowball sampling was also used as respondents who were found through the non-probability sampling were asked to forward the questions link to either friends or relatives and urge them also to answer the questions. The research questions were administered through a developed link on the internet. This became necessary because the researcher could not personally go to Ghana to collect the data. The questionnaire that was used for the data collection was structured and related to poverty, oblivious causal factors, and the kind of policies Ghana will need to alleviate it as the research hypothesized. The questionnaire consisted of both close-ended and open-ended questions that allowed respondents to choose from multiple choice answers and also to provide their own answers where it was necessary. The dichotomous scale approach was used to rate the responses by respondents in the close-ended questions. The responses to the close-ended questions were also rated as

―Yes/No‖. I used this approach because it makes it easy to code and analyze close-ended questions. On the other hand, the open-ended questions allowed respondents to make their own inputs which informed the researcher about so many things. Library research was also done to obtain information from secondary source materials. News reports were as well relied upon as secondary source for information. For data processing, I used Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 and Microsoft Office Excel 2007. I used simple descriptive statistics like charts, tables, means and variance to analyze the data that was collected. I used the descriptive statistics because they are able to send information to a greater number of people as they are relatively easy to read and understand compared to complex mathematics [7].

3. DATA PRESENTATION-RSULTS OF FINDINGS.

Table 1: Religion as a causal factor of poverty in Ghana.

How Religion causes Poverty

―Yes‖ Frequency (Respondents)

―Yes‖ (%)

―No‖ Freque ncy (Respo ndents)

―No‖ (%)

People believe in

miracles than reality 99 of 117 84.62

18 of 117

15.3 8 A lot of people use

working time for religious activities

94 of 116 81.03 22 of 116

18.7 9

Apathy in a lot of people to overcome socioeconomic problems

92 of 117 78.63 25 of 117

21.3 7

Religious leaders misinterpret the scriptures to exploit members

97 of 116 83.62 19 of 116

16.3 8

A lot of religious leaders fail to teach members how to overcome real life challenges

106 of 117 90.60 11 of 117 9.40

Religion has caused a lot of

people to be lazy 88 of 116 75.86

28 of 116

24.1 4 People attribute failures to

the devil than finding out the causes for future correction

105 of 118 88.98 13 of 118

11.0 2

Fig. 1. How road accidents cause poverty in Ghana.

The graph shows how road accidents cause poverty in Ghana. The bars show in percentage the number of respondents who believe the following are some ways through which road accidents cause poverty in Ghana.

A – Road accident are killing breadwinners of families rendering the survivors as poor widows and orphans.

B – Road accidents are killing potential, talented and professionals whose contribution to socioeconomic development would have been significant.

C – Road accidents are making able bodies disabled who can no longer work to make money to take care of themselves and their families.

D – Loss of property if the car which serves as a source of income for the individual and the family breaks down beyond repairs.

E – Extra money and resources have to be used to repair or fix damaged road facilities caused by accidents, while these money and resources could be used for other important purposes.

Table 2: Lack of family planning.

How lack of family planning causes poverty

―Yes‖ (%) Frequency (Respondents)

―Yes‘ (%) No (%) ―No‖ (%)

A bigger family size compared to its socioeconomic resources causes inadequacy and shortage in the supply of the basic socioeconomic needs in that family

112 of 115 97.39 3 of 115 2.61

This table shows how lack of family planning causes poverty. The ―Yes‖ indicates in percentage and frequency the number of respondents who agree that a family bigger in size than its resources causes inadequacy and shortage in the supply of the socioeconomic needs of that family which eventually causes poverty for that family. The ―No‖ shows in percentage and frequency the respondents who don‘t believe that lack of family planning can cause inadequacy and shortage and for that matter poverty.

Table 3: Lack or poor maintenance culture.

How lack or poor maintenance culture causes poverty

―Yes‖ Frequency (Respondents )

―Yes‖ (%)

―No‖ Frequency (Respondent s)

―No‖ (%)

Lack of

maintenance culture causes

money and

resources invested in the provision of amenities and developmental projects go waste as these amenities and projects break down very shortly

110 of 114 96.49 4 of 114 3.51

Lack of

maintenance culture causes stagnation as

money and

resources are always needed to repeat same projects

110 of 113 97.35 3 of 113 2.65

Lack of

maintenance culture causes unemployment

111 of 113 98.23 2 of 113 1.77

Table 4: Poor attitude towards work.

How poor attitude towards work manifest in Ghana

Yes (%) No (%)

A lot of government

workers go to work late 83.62 16.38 There is high

absenteeism in most government institutions

87.83 12.17

A lot of government workers go to work and sit down idle without working

90.52 9.48

There is high level of thievery in most government institutions

95.69 4.31

Most government workers work with lukewarm attitude because they know any loss is for the government

98.28 1.72

Poor attitude towards work causes low productivity

99.14 0.86

The table shows poor attitude towards work as a causal factor of poverty and how it manifests in Ghana. ―Yes‖ in the table represents in percentage the respondents who see these situations as ways through which the phenomenon manifest. ―No‖ on the hand are those who don‘t see these situations manifest.

Table 5: High demand for foreign goods and services.

Why is there a high demand for

foreign goods and services Yes (%) No (%) Because Ghana produces very little

of the things it need as a nation 88.70 11.30 Because locally made goods and

services are often not of good quality 57.76 42.24 Because locally made goods and

services are often expensive than the foreign goods and services

81.74 18.26

The table shows why there is high demand for foreign goods and services in Ghana. ―Yes‖ in the table shows in percentage the respondents who agree with the above as some reasons for the high demand for foreign goods and services in Ghana. ―No‖ on the hand shows a disagreement by some respondents that the above are reasons for the high demand for foreign goods and services.

Table 6: How high demand for foreign goods and services cause poverty.

How high demand for foreign goods and service cause poverty

Yes (%) No (%)

It increases Ghana‘s balance of payment deficit

97.37 2.63

It eventually collapses some local production companies and causes unemployment

100 0.00

This table shows how high demand for foreign goods and services causes poverty in Ghana. The ―Yes‖ shows in percentage the respondents who see the above as some ways by which the phenomenon causes poverty and ―No‖ shows the respondents who don‘t see them as the case.

Figure 2: The oblivious causal factors of poverty in Ghana.

The graph shows some oblivious causes of poverty in Ghana. The color blue represents the respondents who agree to the following as causal factors of poverty and the orange color represents those who disagree to the following as causal factors of poverty.

A – Religion.

B – Lack of family planning. C – Lack of maintenance culture. D – Poor attitude towards work.

E – High demand for foreign goods and services. F – Road accidents

4. This research work tried to find out whether or not there are some oblivious causal factors of poverty in Ghana and through the questionnaire that was administered to respondents, it was found that there are some oblivious factors that cause poverty to people and the nation of Ghana in general. These oblivious causal factors include:

and how it can cause poverty in Ghana. Some religious believes and cultural practices have caused a lot of people to believe so strongly in miracles and break trues that they no longer face the reality of using their brains to think of appropriate solutions to their problems. By extension, religion has caused a lot of people the apathy to make efforts to overcome their socioeconomic problems. People now prefer to run to churches or mosques when they are sick to going to the hospital for treatment. People no longer believe in the reality of working hard and adopting positive attitudes towards work but rather prefer to stay under the presence of their prophets and Imams all day and all night in their churches and mosques. Thus religion has caused a lot of people to be lazy and under the pretext of religion a lot of people have adopted very poor attitude towards work by using their working times for religious activities. Poor attitude towards work such as laziness, absenteeism, lateness, poor management etc. means low production, low production means low income which leads to poverty. This is in line with the right-wing poverty theory that says poverty is an individual phenomenon. This view holds that people are in poverty due to laziness, poor attitude towards work, illiteracy, lack of knowledge on their part or else lesser in some sense. A lot of religious people give out even the little money they have to their pastors, prophets, Imams or priests at their own expense in fulfilment of some scriptures which have been misinterpreted as give and it shall be given onto you (but it‘s only one side that should always give). This goes to confirm what about 83.62% of the respondents said that some religious leaders misinterpret the scriptures just to exploit their members. Churches and mosques have made people to believe that they can reap where they did not sew, meaning something can happen out of nothing, for these reasons people don‘t want to use their brains, talents and strength to work but want to wait for miracles instead. This is in line when 90.60% of the respondents said a lot of religious leaders fail to teach their members how to overcome real life challenges. It is clear that religion is causing people to be lazy by the way it is being administered. The bible scripture ―in God‘s own time, HE makes everything beautiful‖ has been misconstrued by most Christian believers as ―make no effort‖ and therefore leaving all problems including poverty (unsolved) in the hands of God and not making any effort of solving some of these personal problems or coming out of the poverty because in God‘s own best time, He will solve our problems and bring us out of poverty. Religious believes have caused a lot of people to attribute failures to the devil than finding out the reasons for the failures for future corrections. When people find themselves in this situation, they see no progress in their socioeconomic life as they fail to identify mistakes and avoid them in future endeavors. This is where I agree with the poverty theory that asserts that poor people form and keep certain mental attitudes, believes and perceptions that entrap and hold them in poverty. For example, to some poor people, it is okay and finer to enjoy welfare than work a full-time job. Basically, this school of thought asserts that the kind of mental attitudes, believes and perceptions that are strictly formed by some people themselves without trying other options are what keep them in poverty. The way religion is being administered in recent days in Ghana has clearly caused a lot of people to be poor and if care is not taken, it will lead more people into poverty (Table 1).

4.3 According to the study, the lack of family planning has been one of the oblivious causes of poverty in Ghana. Participants of the study explained that a bigger size family compared to its socioeconomic resources causes inadequacy and shortage in the supply of the socioeconomic needs in that family and this by implication causes poverty to the family (Table 2). The bigger family size in the various homes is what accumulates in to the high population of Ghana compared to its resources and infrastructures. This in the same vein will cause shortage and inadequacy in the country‘s supply of the basic socioeconomic needs such as hospitals, schools, roads, markets, housing etc. for its citizens and subsequently affects its economy negatively. Former President, Jerry John Rawlings mentioned the lack of family planning as one of the major reasons for the high poverty rate in Ghana. Delivering a speech at the 23rd anniversary and fundraising service of Powerhouse Ministries International, Former President Rawlings emphasized that Ghana will be faced with more socioeconomic problems if steps are not made to check the rate at which citizens give birth. He stressed that more child births will among other things mount undue pressure on Ghana‘s scarce infrastructure and resources. The Ex-president highlighted that part of Ghana‘s poverty among other things is caused by the failure of Ghanaians to adopt family planning. As a result of lack of family planning, a lot of people are giving birth to children who instead of becoming assets to Ghana are becoming liabilities which causes troubles and for that matter poverty, the Ex-president said [13]. Considering the dangers that lack of family planning which leads to high population growth rate pose to economic development of countries, the representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in West Africa and the Sahel, Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, recently cautioned African leaders including that of Ghana to prioritize family planning strategies to check the rate of increase in the population since it could adversely affect their economic growth. Borrowing his words, Dr. Ibn Chambas said ―despite the potential of a large population size to translate into significant economic growth as had been seen in countries like China and India, it was imperative for African countries to control the recent ―demographic explosion‖ that the continent was experiencing‖ [14]. It is clear that lack of family planning has been one of the reasons of Ghana‘s impoverishment over the years as a lot of Ghanaians have been resistant to family planning and raising families that are more than their resources and that of the country.

4.4 Again, according to the study, one of the causes of poverty in Ghana that has remained oblivious is the lack of maintenance culture. Maintenance may be defined as any action taken to keep or restore an item or project to acceptable condition. According to Edward B. Taylor, culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, law, morals, customs and many other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of a society. Maintenance culture may therefore be defined as the lifestyle adopted by a group of people to incessantly maintain in their best ability all their properties so as to enjoy the greatest benefits of these properties. This applies to human beings too, as you need exercise, regular medication and nutrition. Physical infrastructures also need constant repairs. Culture in not only about language, singing and dancing, but the entire lifestyle of the people. It is also the collective responsibility of the people to work towards the sustenance of the community. Citizens of

Ghana are therefore obliged to build and maintain a country that will make future generation proud. Ultimately, maintenance is for the prolongation of the lifespan of an asset, because use causes deterioration. Putting assets into good use involves adopting strategies to sustain the assets in their best functional conditions. Examples of such strategies include maintenance and a positive cultural behavior towards the assets, ―Labeling some forests as evil forests from which trees cannot be fell just to avoid indiscriminate cutting down of trees in protection of the environment‖ [15]. There is the need for every country to adopt maintenance culture if it is to achieve socioeconomic development. Unfortunately, Ghana has not performed well in maintenance culture. The reasons for this, according to Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi is the ―Lack of commitment from leaders in all spheres of the Ghanaian society as well as the absence of clear policies and financial resources to effect regular maintenance, and the failure of managements across the country‖. The former Minister for Food and Agriculture Mr. Ahwoi blamed the Ministry of Finance for approving funds for new office structures, the buying of new furniture and curtains among others but does not cater for the maintenance budget presented by the management of the individual ministries [16]. This according to respondents has created some of the following problems in our socioeconomic life. The lack of maintenance culture causes money and resources invested in the provision of amenities and developmental projects go waste as these amenities and projects break down very shortly. As these amenities such as schools, hospitals, markets, roads, water taps, toilet facilities which are basic to human survival break down and cannot be used again, it causes a lack of these amenities for the people which by extension is poverty. In addition, lack of maintenance culture causes stagnation in the socioeconomic development of the country as money and resources are always needed to repeat same projects. This stresses what Mr. Ahwoi once said that the failure of Ghana to adopt the culture of maintenance is making the nation waste huge sums of money that could be put into other new important development projects ministries [16]. Also, lack of maintenance culture causes unemployment, as some people who work in some of these projects and facilities will be laid off upon the collapse of these facilities or projects. Example the Ghana Airways and Railway companies. Being laid off means losing one‘s source of income and the subsequent effect of this is poverty (Table 3). The effects of lack of maintenance culture discussed above makes it clear that the phenomenon is really contributing to poverty in Ghana and deserves the nation‘s attention.

its workers. Another manifestation of poor attitude towards work in most of the government institutions is that a lot of workers go to work and sit down idle without working. This is more or less same as absenteeism. I say this because being present at work but absent in working also implies low or no production by the worker. The president highlighted that Ghanaians report late at work and use the first one hour for activities like prayers. A lot of public sectors workers have become time monitors who close from work even in the course of a crucial work, just for the fact that it is officially a closing time. All work comes to a halt when the rain falls, thinking that the rest of the world will be waiting for Ghana, said the President. This means the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was ―spot on‖ when he was delivering a speech on the May Day, 2017 and said that Ghanaians show no respect for the official hours set aside for work. Workers pray, eat and visit using working time. Workers confabulate on the phone for one working hour whiles customers are waiting to be served, this consequently adds to cost of labor. A lot of workers take one week vacation for every funeral. Ghanaians do all these and turn to wonder why they are not competitive. The high level of thievery in most of the government institutions is also one of the negative attitudes that are put up by many government workers. Stealing the money or resources that are meant for production means low or no input, the result of which is low output and low profit. It also causes delays in the production processes which economically impedes efficiency. There is also a lukewarm attitude by a lot of government workers, as they know losses will not be borne by them but the government. This poor attitude leads workers to turn blind eyes on working equipment or facilities under bad conditions for maintenance. Even some workers carelessly mishandle or misuse these equipment or facilities because government will replace them when they break down or collapse. This makes government spends the tax payers money which could be used for other purposes on restoring these broken facilities or equipment. This money that the government spends could be saved if its workers become responsible enough to take good care of the facilities or equipment in their domain. Lukewarm attitude also means people pretending to work while in actual fact they are doing no work or under working. The discussion on poor attitude towards work makes it clear that this phenomenon leads to low productivity in the government institutions (Table 4) which serves as huge loss especially for the government. This by implication causes poverty for the government which trickles down to the individual citizens because the government under this condition will not be able to increase the salaries of its workers even though the cost of living maybe high. It is in the wake of this that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo urged public sector workers to change their attitude towards work if Ghana is to achieve progress. Speaking during the May Day 2017, the President lamented public workers attitude towards work and entreated them to change for the best.

4.6 The last but not the least oblivious cause of poverty in Ghana, according to the study is the high demand for foreign goods and services by Ghanaians. In other words there is high import in Ghana. Imports are goods and services demanded by citizens, commercial enterprises and the government of a country from abroad. What the imports are or how they are brought to the country don‘t really matter. ―They can be shipped, sent by email, or even hand-carried in personal

luggage on a plane. If they are produced in a foreign country and sold to domestic residents, they are imports‖ said Kimberly Amadeo. Products and services of tourism are as well imports, because anything you buy during your tour outside your country is an import. There is a trade deficit if a country imports more than it exports whiles there is a trade surplus if the country imports less than its export. This conforms to what respondents of the study said that the high demand for foreign goods and services increases the balance of payment deficit of Ghana (Table 5). A country would have to borrow from other countries to pay for the extra imports when it has a trade deficit [17]. Imports render a country dependant on the political and economic powers of other countries, particularly if it depends on these other countries for food, oil as well as industrial materials. And it is very treacherous for any country to rely on another country‘s powers to feed its people and keep its factories functioning. The recession that befell the United States when the OPEC embargoed its oil exports is a case in point. High import countries have to increase their foreign currency reserves, as this is how they pay for the imports. The act of a country increasing its foreign currency reserve to pay for its imports affects the value of its local currency, inflation and interest rates. Local companies are put into competition with imports, and young businesses that cannot compete will be forced out of business. This will create unemployment since these small businesses create about 70% of all new jobs. This proves the finding by the study that the high demand for foreign goods and services eventually collapses some local production companies and causes unemployment (Table 6). This explains why there is currently a high level of unemployment in Ghana. Unemployment means no source of income and subsequently the inability by the individual to provide for themselves and their families the basic needs of life, which depicts a poverty situation. The high demand for foreign goods and services implies a transfer of job opportunities and resources that facilitate development from the local economy to Ghana‘s trading partners [18]. According to the study, there is high import in Ghana because Ghana produces very little of the things it needs, the locally made goods and services are often not of good quality, though 42.24% of the respondents disagree the locally made goods and services are not good in quality. Also, the study found that the locally made goods and services are often expensive than the foreign goods and services (Table 5). High demand for foreign goods and services has increased Ghana‘s balance of payment deficit over the years and has impacted negatively on inflation, interest rate and the value of the local currency. These situations coupled with unemployment as a result of the collapse of some local businesses have contributed significantly to poverty in Ghana over the years.

5.

SUGGESTED

SOLUTIONS

/

RECOMMENDATION / POLICIES

These oblivious causes of poverty can be remedied if the following suggestions could be adopted and practiced in Ghana.

under the council‘s authority. The council shall form rules and standards to which all religious bodies and their leaders will conform in their religious endeavors. Religious leaders or organizations that go against these set rules should be duly sanctioned. Anyone who qualifies to be a Pastor, Imam, or a head of a church or mosque should at least be a first degree holder and must also have certificate from a renowned school of theology. The national religious council should be the only body to confer on somebody the tile of a pastor, prophet, imam, just to mention but a few. It should be only after when the council has conferred on one any of these titles that one will have the right to establish a church or mosque. The national religious council shall have the responsibility to periodically organize training programs for all religious leaders. Religious leaders should be trained to teach their congregations how to face real life challenges through hard work and taking initiatives. Members should be made to understand that, even though God blesses, riches and prosperity in life come by hard work. Religious bodies should teach their people positive attitudes towards work such as hard work, punctuality, being regular at work, and ultimately having respect for time. Religious people should stop using working hours for their religious activities. For this reason religious programs should only be organized only on weekends or after working hours during the working days. The misconception that something can happen out of nothing by a lot of religious people should be corrected by religious leaders. Religious people should be taught to go to hospital for treatment when they are sick and stop attributing sicknesses and life failures to the devil and spiritualism. Finally, there must be a national development agenda that will be pursued through religion.

5.2 Road accidents can be reduced significantly if not totally stopped, by an intense education about road use for both drivers and pedestrians. Users of the road should understand the meanings of the road signs, symbols and how to ensure safety on the road. Drivers should not drink alcohols and drive. The police should be on the roads to check drunk drivers and the laws to punish such drivers should be enforced without fear nor favor. In fact road regulations should be enforced to the core. The MTTU department of the police must regularly check and remove from the roads, cars that are not road worthy. I know the police have been doing this, but the bribes they accept from drivers do not help the situation. So the police should stop taking bribes from drivers and discharge their duties diligently. Road calming strategies that substantially control vehicles to slow down, coupled with disjoined footpaths and bike paths, as well as safe crossing points will go a long way to reduce accidents on the road. It will be cost effective too, as it minimizes the need for the high cost of police enforcement. Also, there is the pressing need to put towing vehicles on the roads for regular patrol to take away all faulty or broken cars from the roads at the cost of their owners. Government should construct good roads with footbridges to avoid people from being knocked down by cars. These roads should be extended to the rural areas as well, connecting all feeder roads to the major roads to enable farmers transport their products safely to the market centers for sale. The roads must be furnished with road facilities such as traffic lights, street

lights, reflectors, and drainage systems to avoid flooding on the road, road signs and markings, pavements etc. To avoid unnecessary traffic jam and head-on collisions on the roads, Ghana must start constructing dual carriage roads. Government should also invest in other means of transportation such as railway system and domestic airline transportation. Finally, there must be regular and prompt maintenance of roads.

repairs. They should also report those who deliberately destroy or steal public properties for punishment.

5.4 For poor attitude towards work, government should provide conducive working conditions for its workers by providing the offices with good chairs and tables for workers to sit on. The environment, equipment, infrastructure as well as the buildings should be the type that makes the working environment operational. Government should give its workers good salaries so that they don‘t use working hours for their personal businesses to earn money to supplement what they receive from the government. Government should ensure that supervisors make the system operational, as the conditions of service and agreements of every working institution are clearly stated. Supervisors should therefore make their subordinates conform to the established working conditions. Unnecessary leaves and absenteeism must not be approved or tolerated by leaders of the public sector institutions. Punitive measures such as dismissal, suspension, withholding salaries and other incentives of defaulters, prosecution in terms of thievery etc. should be established and diligently enforced in government and other institutions to correct the poor attitude towards work that retards progress and development. Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye, the Speaker of Ghana's Parliament once said ―Let punishment flow to let people conform or perish'' [19]. There must be strong punishment to be given to deviants at the work place to ensure obedience to the law and order. Citizens must stop the gratuitous covering up for people who do wrong in the work environment. People must stop the habit of protecting others after they have done wrong and give them out for the law to take its course. This is the surest way to correct the poor attitude to work by public sector workers. It will also be ideal if workers are paid according to their number of hours worked. Citizens can also be educated about the need to be time conscious and how their poor attitude towards work can affect their own growth and that of the nation.

5.5 Finally, Ghana has over the years depended heavily on international financial and technical assistance. Thus Ghana imports mostly industrial supplies, capital and consumer goods and foodstuffs. It partners with China, United States, Belgium, France and United Kingdom in its importations. Because Ghana runs a relatively free market system, its tariffs on imported products are relatively low [20]. On the high demand for foreign goods and services, Ghana must grow what it eats and eat what it grows. As a country, Ghana must endeavor to locally produce most of the things it needs to keep its population. Example food, cars, medicine, education, farming materials or equipment, tourism, music and films etc. Programs and systems that encourage inventions should be a priority and as people get encouraged to innovate, Ghanaians must embrace these new local inventions. Entrepreneurship must be taken seriously as a course of study at all levels of education to boost the establishment of private companies or businesses. Government should encourage local production by supporting the local manufacturing companies or businesses financially. Government can reduce the tax responsibilities of the local businesses and also give them loans with low

interest rate. Government can subsidize the production cost of the local companies or businesses as well. This will help the local companies to produce at a low cost which will subsequently reflect in the local products to be sold at cheaper prices to attract greater patronage by citizens. This will also strengthen the local businesses to grow and compete effectively with the foreign companies. Government can also lower the value of its currency. The effect of this is more or less as giving subsidies. This reduces the prices of goods. It means the Central Bank of Ghana will have to reduce interest rates or print more money. China and Japan are very good at employing this strategy. Government can use the trade protectionism strategy to increase exports. Thus raising tariffs or taxes on imports to make them expensive, though affected countries are likely to retaliate. The local producers must also ensure high level of quality products, since quality is one of the factors that determine the demand for a product, especially in a competitive market. The government can set the pace by patronizing the locally made goods and services for the citizens to follow suit. It doesn‘t teach well to the people, the concept of eating what you grow when there is a locally car manufacturing company in Ghana and yet government imports cars for its officials and institutions. Government must adopt the culture of buying the locally made goods first and then pass it on to its people. Ghanaians must have respect for their local products and develop the interest in using them whether good or bad. As the producers receive high patronage, they get money to improve upon the quality of their products and later become perfect. This is how most of the developed countries started before reaching where they are now. It is not late, Ghana can also make it if it so desires.

6.

CONCLUSION

Several efforts have been made to alleviate poverty in Ghana, focusing attentions on unemployment, illiteracy, bribery and corruption, poor governance, ethnic conflicts, natural and man-made disasters, inequalities and discrimination, low investment in the agricultural sector etc. With all the efforts made, little or no significant progress has been made. These efforts will make significant progress if the Government and Ghanaians in general identify religion and how it is administered, lack of family planning, road accidents, lack of maintenance culture, poor attitude towards work and the excessive demand for foreign goods and services as factors that also contribute greatly to poverty in Ghana, and as such fashion out strategies such as the above, that address their effects to complement the efforts being made in the areas that already have the nation‘s attention.

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