IEA RELEASES LATEST SURVEY REPORT

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Unemployment, poverty and unreliable power supply known in local parlance as ‘dumsor’ are the top three problems confronting Ghanaians according to an Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) survey released yesterday.

Corruption and high prices of goods and services also featured prominently in the survey that looked at “Most Important Problems Confronting Ghana” between November and December last year.

Releasing the report under the IEA’s socio-economic and governance survey, Samuel Manu, Research Officer and Head of Survey Unit at the institute said the project covered 1,500 respondents all over the country and 25.8 percent said the unemployment situation had reached unimaginable proportion.

He said 23 percent responded that poverty was widespread while 16 percent said unreliable electricity supply is their major concern for Ghanaians and 9.9 percent for corruption as well as 7.9 for high prices respectively.

Mr. Manu said the survey results indicated that crime, ethnicity and clashes between the ruling NDC and the opposition NPP were not too much of a concern for Ghanaians at the moment.

According to him, 26.7 percent of female respondents expressed concern about the unemployment situation as against 24 percent of males and 24.8 percent of females complained about poverty as against 20.1 percent of males.

He said 16.4 percent of female respondents complained about unreliable power supply as against 16.2 while 13.4 percent of male respondents complained about corruption as against 7.5 percent with 9 percent female respondents saying prices of goods and services were too high as against 6.3 percent of males.

Mr. Manu said unemployment was of more concern to urban dwellers while those living in rural areas were interested in how poverty can be reduced.

He said respondents from the three Northern regions and those in Brong Ahafo as well as Central regions were concerned about poverty while those in Ashanti and Greater Accra complained about dumsor which is wreaking havoc to the economy.

He said the respondents in Western, Eastern and Volta regions complained about unemployment.