Informal street food caterers, popularly known as chop bars, are a key feature of Ghanaian city life. They offer the urban poor the cheapest food.

A 2016 survey by the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated there were about 3,300 chop bars in the capital, Accra, employing almost 4,300 workers. This figure is likely to be much higher now due to rapid urban growth in the last decade. Ghana’s urban population increased from 50.9% in 2010 to 56.7% in 2021. By the same year the Greater Accra region was home to 91.7% of the urban population in the country.

Street food caterers in Accra face a number of problems, including insecurity of land tenure, inadequate knowledge of food hygiene, harassment from local authorities, cut-throat competition, and low returns from work.

Foreign donors have over the years stepped in to attempt to address these problems. A flagship of this assistance has been a programme funded by Danish trade unions and the Danish Federation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Under its aegis, Ghana’s Trades Union Congress was able to support workers in chop bars.

Drawing on our expertise on trade unions in Ghana and on the informal economy, we assessed the effectiveness and strategic relevance of this aid.

The aid focused on entrepreneurial skills and micro-credit. This overlooks some of the real problems in the sector. It leaves wage workers in a precarious position and does nothing to boost demand for what the sector supplies. We argue that to be more effective, foreign aid should address these gaps.

Entrepreneurial pipe dreams

Increased donor attention to workers in the informal economy and trade unions could be seen as a positive trend. After all, this is where the majority of workers in African cities are to be found. Ghana’s official statistical service places the size of the country’s informal sector between 70% and 80% of the working populace in its reports from 2024.

However, close examination of the type of support given, and its results, yields a more sobering picture.

Aid focused firstly on capacity building and entrepreneurship. This aimed at boosting skills such as financial literacy and capacity to care for customers. The programme’s own evaluation highlights the increased confidence that chop bar operators gained through this training. Important as this might be, increased confidence can do very little to overcome structural challenges, like intense competition in an oversupplied sector and the insecurity of land tenure.

A second area of support was the provision of micro-credit via the Trades Union Congress (Ghana). One could argue that it boosted the creditworthiness of informal economy operators. But there is evidence, including our study, that credit can often result in a spiral of debt and “poverty finance”.

Donors chose to focus on small-scale entrepreneurs as the only economic actors in the informal economy. This reflects an ideological, and market fundamentalist, understanding of the informal economy as inhabited only by small enterprises and self-employed workers, and the challenge as one of making the market work better for the poor.

The blind spots of donors’ support to the informal economy

This approach by donors neglects informal and highly precarious wage workers within the chop bar sector. Our research shows that the chop bar industry is stratified in terms of class. Within it, alongside genuine self-employed workers, there are people who own relatively small-scale capital (cooking assets and in some cases the land and buildings in which the bars are based) and who employ informal wage workers.

The informal workforce is by and large made up of migrant female workers with relatively low education and skill. They work without contracts, for very long hours and very low wages, and face the risk of sudden dismissal and harassment from employers. Such poor working conditions stem from the lack of contracts, and of the rights that come with them. This is the weakest category of workers in the industry – yet they have no place in donors’ and trade unions’ activities to support workers.

The main limitation of donors’ aid to the chop bar sector is that it focuses exclusively on supply-side interventions. It is based on the idea that improving skills and access to finance will result in increased demand for the services of small-scale entrepreneurs. Many aid programmes on employment make this mistake and suffer from so called “employment dementia” .

This type of aid doesn’t ask where the stimulus to increase demand for street food will come from, or what the structural roots of urban employment challenges are. It doesn’t consider why African cities have large informal economies and poor-quality jobs.

Aid priorities

Donors should re-think their aid priorities, and put informal wage workers at their centre. This would entail moving away from the current focus on micro-solutions for job creation, and instead supporting policies to promote structural change, to tighten labour markets and increase the demand for good-quality jobs within them.

This article was co-authored with Dr Prince Asafu-Adjaye, an associate of Labour Research Service.

By Justina Paaga

Takoradi, April 30, GNA – Bank of Ghana (BoG) has underscored the need for accuracy in financial journalism, stressing that journalists’ effectiveness depends on their understanding of economic issues.

Mr. Bernard Otabil, Director of Communications at the BoG, said this during the opening of a two-day media capacity-building workshop in Takoradi in the Western Region.

The workshop which is the third in a series is being attended by 26 journalists from the Western and Western North Regions to equip them with a deeper understanding of economic and financial reporting.

The initiative is part of the BoG’s broader efforts to enhance media capacity, ensuring that financial news coverage remained accurate, insightful, and beneficial to the public.

Mr Otabil said the Management of the Bank recognises the important role journalists played in sensitising the public about its policies and programmes nationwide, especially after the Bank’s Monetary Policy meetings and the media engagements that followed.

He pointed out that communication remained critical to enhancing the Bank’s policies, therefore, with the approval of Management, the Communications Department consistently creates platforms to improve upon strategic media partnerships.

Mr. Otabil said misinformation in financial journalism often resulted from a lack of knowledge and urged reporters to continuously educate themselves.

He said: “This media training is not to enhance your interviewing skills nor to help you define the old question of journalism: What is News! Rather, it is to further enhance your ability to craft compelling narratives about the policies and objectives of the Bank, especially as far as monetary policy is concerned.

We want you to be able to navigate the often-complex world of economics and finance. Essentially, the Bank is committed to empowering journalists to deliver impactful narratives about the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and build your confidence in writing about business and finance.”

He added: “A journalist is only as good as their understanding of the subject they are reporting on. That is why we are here to provide training on what we do as a central bank, particularly our monetary policy report. There have been instances where reports have been inaccurately presented, and this often stems from a lack of deep understanding of financial and economic issues.”

He cautioned journalists not to play propaganda with the activities of the central Bank, noting, that, “there are repercussions with your actions and in actions as journalists.”

Touching on accurate reporting, Mr Otabil encouraged journalists to report on precision clarity, specificity and consistency.

He also asked journalists to play their gate keeping role effectively and be mindful of the kind of headlines they give to their stories.

On the issue of specialisation in journalism, Mr. Otabil stressed the importance of continuous learning. He advised journalists interested in financial reporting to dedicate time to reading at least one article per week on economic and business topics, stating that this practice could transform them into experts over time.

“One workshop cannot make you an expert overnight, but consistency in learning will. If you read a 500-word article on financial matters every week, in a year, you would have read 52 articles, enough to give you a strong grasp of the subject,” he advised.

Mr Kofi Assan, the Regional Manager BOG Takoradi, indicated that the bank and media were the same stakeholders and should therefore work collectively to ensure effective financial management in the country.

For his part, Mr Desmond Cudjoe Western Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), lauded the bank for the initiative and asked that regular such workshops should be organised to build the capacity of journalists.

He said it was important for the media to build an interface that would help them to effectively interpret financial issues to the public.

The participants were taken through key topics, including Macroeconomic Analysis and the Significance of Macroeconomic Indicators, Monetary Policy Practice in Ghana, and Understanding Inflation Dynamics in Ghana, Responsible Borrowing and inflation dynamics.

GNA

JP/BM

Kwabena Adu-Boahene is a former Director-General of the National Signals Bureau

The Attorney General, Dr. Dominic Ayine, has filed 11 charges against Kwabena Adu-Boahene, a former Director-General of the National Signals Bureau (NSB), who is accused of transferring GH¢49 million (approximately $7 million) from the bureau’s account to his personal account, among other offenses.

More soon…

By Erica Apeatua Addo

Wangarakrom (W/R), April 30, GNA – The University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, has conducted a simulation exercise to help address illegal mining conflicts peacefully.

UMaT was assisted by officers from the Ghana Police Service, Ghana National Ambulance Service, Ghana National Fire Service, the Ghana Armed Forces, the Ghana Prisons Service, National Disaster Management Organisation, and Mining companies to undertake the exercise at Wangarakrom in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality.

The exercise formed part of activities to observe this year’s World Day for Safety and Health at Work which falls on April 28 of every year.

The theme for 2025 is: “Revolutionizing Health and Safety: The Role of AI and Digitalization at work.”

Speaking at the event, Dr Eric Stemn, the Coordinator for the Disaster and Emergency Management Hub in UMaT, said because they were in a mining community, annually they tried to identify key community issues, and then stimulate that scenario to test their emergency response teams preparedness.

“So, this year, we undertook a simulation exercise focusing on illegal miners encroaching on the large-scale concession and how we can use dialog instead of the normal force and use of arms” he stated

Dr Stemn revealed that over the past four years, the University had worked closely with Gold Fields on this project to raise awareness about potential risks and challenges, and to promote proactive measures to mitigate them.

Additionally, he said: “One of the major lessons we are learning from this exercise is to ensure proper coordination among the security agencies, and I think gradually, we are achieving that particular purpose.

“For instance, in Tarkwa mining area, l am aware that there has been a lot of engagement with the security agencies and the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice has also been brought on board for them to understand that even though someone has engaged in an illegal act, that does not take away his rights.”

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Raymond Kofi Erzuah, Divisional Police Commander, Tarkwa, who led the exercise, expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the exercise and lauded the officers for their dedication and teamwork.

He, however, warned that anyone engaging in illegal mining in water bodies and forest reserves would face the law, as per President John Dramani Mahama’s directive.

ACP Erzuah advised anyone, or group interested in mining to go through the formal processes and obtain necessary permits, adding, “Your life is precious: don’t risk it through illegal mining. Your family and the nation need you.

Mr Prince Essuah, on behalf of Dr Catherine Kuupol Kuutor, the General Manager of Gold Fields Tarkwa Mine, highlighted that, “We face difficulties due to illegal miners invading our sites. We deal with huge equipment, and the risk is that you can run over any of them, and we know the implications. “

He emphasised that, “when it happens that way, the community will come after us, so we protect our sites through regular patrols and community awareness programmes. It’s a tough task, but with persistence and community engagement, we expect good outcome.”

Mr Charles Opoku Amoateng, a member of the planning committee for the programme for UMaT, an adjunct lecturer and the immediate past health and safety manager, Gold Fields Tarkwa Mine, on his part noted that they were pleased with the results because the community was not informed prior to the exercise.

He said: “As the team arrived, with the sirens blaring people started asking what was going on. Some came to the scene not just to watch, but to check if their relatives were arrested so they could plead for leniency. So, the exercise is gaining the awareness we are expecting.”

GNA

JP/BM

Lydia Lamisi Akanvariba, the Minister of State for Public Sector Reforms, has announced plans to lead a retirement age reform to tackle age fraud in the public sector.

The Minister stressed the need for a system where every child is assigned a unique number at birth, which will be used to identify them from birth through education, public sector employment, and retirement.

In an interview with Citi News following a meeting with the Deputy Minister for Public Service and Administration of South Africa, Pinky Sharon Kekana, Lydia Lamisi Akanvariba stated that the Public Sector Reforms Secretariat will collaborate with other agencies to establish an identification-at-birth policy to address retirement age fraud in the sector.

“If there’s a way that, from birth, you can be given a certain number, we use to track you from birth, up to the time you will be entering the services. Up to the time you will be going on retirement, it is easy for policy formulation and easy for planning. You don’t even need a census.

“I will be working in collaboration with other ministries like the Ministry for Gender, Health and Local Government to see what policy proposal we can put together to make sure that we’re able to do this and it will be easy,” Lydia Lamisi Akanvariba said.

The Minister of State further hinted at a review of the public service code of conduct.

She stated that the current code of conduct and ethics must be updated to address contemporary challenges, an action the sector will take soon.

Ken Agyapong withdraws from NPP’s ‘Thank You Tour’

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