Government urged to use incentives to encourage family planning

The National Population Council (NPC) has urged government to introduce incentives as a way of implementing the population policy which will limit the number of children couples can have to three.

The UN has estimated Ghana's current population to be around 28.73 million and experts are concerned that the population is growing at a faster rate.

The Executive Director of the National Population Council, Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah said the development has negatively affected the country’s economy.

In a radio interview with Accra based Citi FM on Monday, she said the population growth rate if not checked would reduce the quality of human resource in the country and stagnate economic development.

She also called on the government to encourage Ghanaians to use family planning methods as a way of controlling the country’s fast-growing population.

Underscoring the importance of population growth, Dr Appiah said “Population growth is good, but it should be regulated so that it does not outstrip economic development.”

She called on the government to make family planning services more accessible to encourage its patronage.