Records at the Ghana statistical Service indicate that Ghanaians spend about 10.3 per cent of their annual income on alcohol and tobacco.     

Interestingly, on food and other beverages, they spend as low as 4.5 per cent of their income.

This disclosure comes in the wake of an approval of a 20% tax on Akpeteshie, a locally brewed liqour.

The approval came after a heated debate, stirred by an amendment bill proposed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Nsuta-Kwamang, Kwame Osei-Prempeh, to remove the 20 per cent duty imposed on Akpeteshie in the bill.    

Dr. Kofi Awusabo-Asare, a Professor at the Department of Population and Health of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), made these known when he presented a paper on the topic "Population, Development, Health and Evangelisation" at a public lecture organized by the Spiritan University College (SUC) at Ejisu in Ashanti.     

He said only 3.9 per cent of the total income of the country was spent on production of goods and services, which to him had been the main reason for the high poverty rate in the country.     

Prof. Awusabo-Asare said that as at 2006, Upper West Region was leading the poverty indices in the country with 79 per cent of its population being extremely poor.     

He entreated the religious leaders in the country to encourage their members to cultivate the habit of saving for future occurrences instead of spending them on alcohol and tobacco and other non-profit ventures.     

He said the time had come for churches to focus on business training of their members to help reduce the crime rate among the youth in the country.     

He stated that about 450 to 550 women out of every 10,000
pregnant women died each year from pregnancy related issues and
attributed the tragedy to economic hardship and poor health care
delivery in the country.     

He said it would be better for the religious bodies and the government to intensify education on the spread of sexually
transmitted diseases since 50 per cent of females at the age of 18 and males at the age of 20 would have had their first sexual encounter which to him was worrying for national development.     

Prof. Awusabo-Asare advised the youth in the country to take interest in education because that was the only way for them to become useful to the nation in future.

Ghanadistricts.com

PF