Ayariga announces 20,000 jobs in major waste management overhaul

Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Minister Mahama Ayariga has announced plans by the government to create at least 20,000 permanent jobs as part of a major overhaul of Ghana’s waste management and circular economy sectors. Ayariga said the government was putting together a nationwide sanitation management system that would improve the collection and disposal of waste while creating new employment opportunities, particularly for young people and women. Mahama Ayariga calls for changes to Ghana's waste management system “We hope to create not less than 20,000 permanent jobs in waste management and the circular economy. I’m being very conservative here,” he said. Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Monday, October 5, 2026, the Minister said the planned system would be supported by investments in waste collection vehicles and tricycles, household waste bins, transfer stations and engineered landfill sites. He said the government was developing a comprehensive sanitation strategy to provide the infrastructure needed to improve waste management across the country. Ayariga said Finance Minister Ato Forson was awaiting cost estimates for the construction of engineered landfill sites in all regional capitals, as well as, waste transfer stations in every Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembly (MMDA). One major change under the proposed system will be the replacement of open-bucket tricycles currently used to collect waste with self-loading and self-tipping vehicles. According to Ayariga, the move could make it easier for more women to enter the waste management sector. “I go to the transfer stations, and I stand there and observe, and every tricycle that comes there, the rider is a man. His helper is a man,” he said. “And what we’re trying to do is to replace the existing open-bucket tricycles with self-loading and self-tipping tricycles. And we believe that those can be easily operated also by young girls,” he said. The minister, however, assured existing waste collectors that the reforms would not leave them without work. “There are people already involved in using tricycles to convey the waste. There are people using trucks to convey the waste. We don’t want to displace them,” he said. “We want to assure them that the new system that we’re going to operate will have them included,” he added. Ayariga said the system would also generate revenue from household waste collection payments, recycling and companies that convert waste into energy. He explained that although government would initially finance the infrastructure, revenue generated from the activities would eventually help recover the cost. The reforms form part of government’s broader efforts to tackle Ghana’s persistent sanitation challenges. Ayariga cited the evacuation of accumulated waste at Abossey Okai following President John Dramani Mahama’s directive for sanitation to be tackled “head-on.” NA/VPO Inside Ghana’s Abandoned Engineering Powerhouse: What Went Wrong? Source: www.ghanaweb.com
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