The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Lariba Zuweira Abudu, has urged Ghanaians to stop giving out money to minors who are begging on the street.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, she explained that because many Ghanaians do not hesitate to hand out money to these minors, they are constantly encouraged to stay on the streets.

Madam Lariba said that as a result some would skip school or leave their homes just so they can earn more money.

“Why should we give a child of school-going age money? It's business as usual. If a child is six years and he's begging, why do we give the child money? If you don't give today, I don't give tomorrow, somebody doesn't give in one week, and they don't get it, they will go back to school. So it's the culture, our culture of the way we give to these minors, that's why they are on the street.”

The Gender Minister stated that if Ghanaians collectively ensure that they do not hand out money to minors all the time it would work to discourage them from staying on the streets.

Also addressing the issue of foreigners on Ghana’s streets, Madam Lariba stated that her outfit is working with embassies of their countries to send them back.

She revealed that about 400 of them were sent back at some point but some of them found their way back into Ghana.

She added that some embassies also do not have the logistics to send back some of their people and this is affecting the process.