The Senior Minister has called for a change in the mindset of Ghanaians after spotting metal-secured and locked waste bins in Ghana’s capital, Accra.

Yaw Osafo-Maafo is shocked that in modern Ghana, city authorities have to resort to such measures to protect common items like rubbish bins.

Speaking at the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ Consultative Forum with civil society organisations in Accra, the Minister said the only way government can attain the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda is when Ghanaians change their way of thinking.

“Is it necessary,” he asked adding “the cost of mounting a dust bin is far more than the dust bin itself. The cost of the lock, concrete and metal belts is far more than the dust bin.”

He continued, “Should it be so? It is a mindset. Elsewhere in the world, these things are put at vantage points and nobody will attempt to take it to their house to put water in it but here in Ghana, if you leave them out unprotected, people will remove them and take them to their houses for their personal use.”

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in June, was forced to introduce a new kind of rubbish bins on some streets of Accra in a bid to keep the city clean and also prevent them from being stolen.

This is because, in the past, rubbish bins positioned at certain places for pedestrians to drop their garbage, have been stolen. Some have even been destroyed by unknown persons.

Following this, the AMA introduced new litter bins which it has kept caged and under lock to prevent them from being stolen or destroyed.

The concrete and metal platforms the bins are mounted on

According to the Deputy Head of Waste Management at the AMA, Victor Kottey, the Assembly is determined to safeguard the bins because it caused a lot of resources.

“The reason behind this is that the money invested in it is huge, and the bins are expensive,” he said when the new bins were outdoored.