GaDangme Council Against Hostel For Head Potters In Accra

The GaDangme Council, the official mouthpiece of GaDangmes, has expressed a varying opinion about the construction of a hostel for head potters in the Greater Accra Region and other regions.

The Council believes the move by the government will exacerbate the menace of rural-urban migration.

This comes after reports that construction of the hostels have begun at Agblogbloshie in Accra and Suame in Kumasi to house homeless head potters- who migrate to the cities to make a living.

Ahead of the 2016 General Election, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) promised hostel facilities for head potters popularly known as ‘kayayei’.

In fulfilment, there are reports of the commencement of these facilities in the regional capital, Accra and Kumasi.

Reacting to this in a statement, the GaDangme Council said the move by the government will encourage migration.

“We wish respectfully to note that to construct hostels for Head Porters is to encourage more unskilled female youth to migrate southward because accommodation would be assured.”

Instead, it said the government should rather confront such migration by providing vocational and technical skills in the northern parts of the country.

“In our view, however, the safest solution to the challenges confronting those who migrate to cities particularly Accra, the capital, is the provision of vocational and technical skills within the regions where they migrate from.”

“When that is done, the migrants having acquired skills can go into local industries applying their vocational and technical skills to run their small scale business instead of moving South for non-existent jobs and becoming a burden on both Central and local governments”, it added.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini