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Ghanaians spend twice more on alcohol,
tobacco than on food
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh,
Ghanadot
A survey has revealed that Ghanaians spend
10.3 per cent of their annual income on
alcohol and tobacco.
While a mere 4.5 per cent of annual earnings
is spent on food and other beverages.
Prof. Kofi Awusabo Asare of the Department
of Population and Health at the University
of Cape Coast, gave the statistics when he
delivered a public lecture organised by the
Spiritan University College at Ejisu in the
Ashanti Region.
The Professor expressed concern that only
3.9 per cent of the country’s total
earnings, according figures from the Ghana
Statistical Service, was spent on food
production, blaming what he called the
worsening poverty situation on the little
attention paid to issues relating to food
production.
Prof. Asare was of the view that state
intervention in reducing poverty will
produce little if any results at all, if the
situation is not reversed.
Some parts of the country are reeling under
what can best be described as debilitating
poverty.
People of the Upper West Region for example
are said to be swimming in a deep sea of
misery and squalor as about 79 per cent of
them are extremely poor, statistics as of
2006 say.
That situation, Prof. Asare states, must be
reversed calling on religious leaders to use
their pulpits to preach and teach the
concepts of saving to their followers.
Ghanadot
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