The Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation, and Rural Development has called for support from relevant stakeholders in tackling rural-urban migration.

It says infrastructure would be under immense pressure in the coming years, as data from the Ghana Statistical Service on urban migration currently stands at 56 percent.

Speaking during the 2022 Ghana Urban Forum on Monday, October 31, 2022, Sector Minister, Dan Botwe said tackling the issue holistically through policies is a major way of handling the situation.

“What is being done to also curb rural-urban migration? One aspect is to make the rural areas habitable. Habitable here means to make sure that there’s local economic development. The people have something to do in the rural areas, if some basic infrastructure and basic amenities are also there in the rural areas, then you can say that you can do something to curb the rural-urban migration. The current urban migration has jumped from 50% to 56.7%. In the next ten years, what do you think the figure will be? So, we must all get involved?”

Ghana’s population is now 30.8 million. This is according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census.

This is an increase of 6.1 million people from the 2010 population figures which were 24.6 million.

Ghana’s urban population has increased from 50% in 2010 to 56% in 2021 with 47% of the increase in the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions.

However, the President of the Ghana Institute of Planners, Mohammed Damba wants the government to focus on building social houses instead of affordable housing units across the country.

He said social houses have proven to be cheaper and their adoption will help co-create a liveable environment for all.

“A lot of the people, especially the low-income people who stay in these areas, really are unable to afford the regular housing we have in the market, and so they are forced by circumstances to go and live on such marginal lands such as living under transmission lines on water or gas pipeline areas, road reservations. What we need to do in the medium to long term is to really take what we refer to as affordable housing seriously. Maybe we have to add social housing, which is the most subsidized”.

On the part of the Ministry of Works and Housing, the Sector Minister, Francis Asensio Boakye, said plans are advanced to set up a Housing Authority to empower the ministry to plan and execute housing policies to meet the needs of Ghanaians.