Study Shows Homosexuality Hits High in Tema, Eastern Regions

THE Greater Accra regional population officer Ms Ellen Rockson has disclosed that a study conducted recently in Tema and certain parts of the Eastern region has indicated that homosexuality is dangerously on the increase.
She said while some engage in it for pleasure others do it as a trade and some homosexuals charge as much as ?200,000 for a three-minute session.
She was surprised that despite the anal discharge experienced by some of them, compelling them to wear sanitary pads, they still engage in such an act.
At a forum aimed at sensitizing the media on population reporting, Ms Rockson urged people residing in Greater Accra to be careful with HIV/AIDS since the rate has risen sharply from 2.4% in 1998 to 4.1% recently.
According to her compared to other regions, the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in the Greater Accra region may be lower but there is the risk of the rate increasing further since it receives the majority of migrants from other regions and other parts of the world and it is known that migration contributes to the spread of HIV.
She said the spread of HIV could be overcome through intensive educational campaigns on the issue of the virus as the prevalence rate is increasing.
Ms Rockson noted that in the whole country, the informal sector has the largest concentration of the working population, irrespective of sex or region, and many of them are in agriculture and related activities, except in Greater Accra.
She stressed that the formal sector is much more important as a source of employment in Greater Accra (33.3%) and Ashanti (23.2%) than the other regions. "
But the population, which is seven years and older, constitute 5,056,882 people who are not economically active, and of this, Greater Accra has the second highest of 1,020,031 representing 17.1% after the Ashanti region," she said.
The population officer said, as a result of this, many people have resorted to petty trading and also the nation's capital has been plunged into indiscipline as hawkers disregard the city's by-laws.
She advised that to overcome the problem of unemployment and urbanization, more of the presidential initiatives must be based in the rural areas and that would reverse the rural-urban migration.