A report by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to assess progress so far on the United Nations (UN) 2020 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has projected 2.3 million Ghanaians to live below the national poverty line by 2030.

Poverty line is the estimated minimum level of income needed to secure the necessities of life.

The report said six regions, namely, Western, Central, Greater Accra, Eastern, Ashanti and the then Brong Ahafo, were to achieve the target of halving poverty line by the same year (2030), while concerted efforts were required to ensure that Volta, Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions meet the targeted national poverty line.

It added that on SDG goal one, the proportion of Ghanaians who were classified as poor based on the national definition reduced from 24.2 per cent in 2013 to 23.4 per cent in 2017.

However, the report explained that in absolute terms, the total number of the poor increased by about 400,000 as of 2017, representing 25.8 per cent poor males and 17.6 per cent females.

The Chief Analyst of NDPC,Dr Richard Osei Bofah, highlighted this during a presentation to launch the UN SDGs 2020 and the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 reports yesterday in Accra.

He said the rural savannah zone experienced a rise in the proportion of poor households from 55 per cent in 2013 to 64 per cent in 2017, indicating that the completion rate in Ghana at the primary school level also rose to 102.4 per cent in 2018/19 and reduced to 101.9 per cent in the 2019/20 academic year.

“The completion rate at Junior High School declined from 79.1 per cent in 2018/19 academic year to 77.5 per cent in 2019/20 academic year.

The recorded rate for girls who completed was 77.1 per cent whereas that of boys was 78 per cent in the 2019/20 academic year,” Dr Bofah said.

He noted that at the Senior High School (SHS) level, the completion rate rose from 55.9 per cent in 2018/19 academic year to 64.1 per cent in 2019/20 academic year, while the rate for the 2019/20 academic year was 65.3 per cent and 62.9 per cent for boys and girls respectively.

The Chairman of the Commission, Professor Gyan Baffour, said since the implementation of the African Union Agenda 2063 in 2013, and the SDGs in 2016, Ghana has assessed the progress made and the challenges that impeded the realisation of both agendas.

He said first was the 2018 SDGs Baseline Report which served as a benchmark for measuring progress on the goals, and also inform policy choices that had to be made to ensure the successful implementation of the SDGs.

BY BERNARD BENGHAN & RICHARD ANIAGYEI