The Women’s wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on the government to focus more on issues that affect women so as to make life of women more comfortable in the country.
The call was made at a town hall meeting of a cross-section of women from the various professions to discuss the state of women affairs in the country as Ghana joined the International Community to mark the International Women’s Day.
International Women’s Day
Taking their turns to talk about issues that affect women, representatives of the various groups narrated some of the ordeals they had to go through because of their gender.
Key among the issues raised were widowhood rites, continued abuse of Kayayei’s, the apparent collapse of the informal sector due to high electricity and water tariffs, high tax rate, early and forced marriages, ineffectiveness of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), power outages, popularly known as Dumsor and how it affected their businesses.
Giving her keynote address, the National Women’s Organiser of the NPP, Ms Otiko Afisah Djaba, highlighted several challenges facing women in the Ghanaian economy.
According to her, although the Ghanaian woman was stronger than before in terms of contributing to national development, they must continue to play the lead role wherever they found themselves and worked to serve as role models to the youth and young girls especially.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Okaikoi North, Madam Elizabeth Sackey, highlighted more the issue of women in politics and urged women to actively participate in decision making.
The MP passionately appealed to the government to focus on initiatives that would build the capacities of women to better contribute to the development of the country.
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