In the face of dwindling world national resources and the devastating effects of climate change, Ghana faces a major challenge to make population the center of the development agenda. This is in view of projections that the current estimated population of 24 million is expected to double in the next decade at a 2.4% annual rate. World projections have estimated that the population will reach 7 billion by October 31 this year, an indication of the urgent attention population issues require. Sadly however, despite the crucial role population play in national development, very little commitment has been shown to the inclusion and implementation of population issues in national policies. The head of the Ghana Population Council, Dr. Stephen Kwankye, who was speaking to Adom FM's Afia Pokua in an interview, has acknowledged that though government has shown a high level of commitment by placing the council under the office of the president, more needs to be done to see significant influences on national policies. Though there exists some collaboration between the Ghana Statistical Service and the Population Council, Dr. Kwankye said increased collaboration can direct government in terms of planning, distribution of national resources as well as assist the two institutions in data analysis. Currently the Population Council is under-resourced while members of its staff have not been placed under the single spine salary structure (S.S.S.S), making the job unattractive to students from the population studies department of universities. This year alone, the council has lost about five staff to other institutions. The council has only eight vehicles for its headquarters in Accra and all 10 regional offices; though it requires a vehicle for all regional offices. The situation has stalled efforts by the council to open district offices across the country. Officers have no choice but to use their own internet modems to access the internet because the official service has been out of order for a while. This notwithstanding, the population council led by Dr. Kwankye is committed to work to impact on national development. Thankfully, the U.N.P.A is in discussions with the council to source for funding for its operations. Dr. Kwankye praised the efforts of the Ghana Health Service in educating the public on family planning issues to bring the rate of population increase down from 2.7% to 1.4%. However he called for the inclusion of family planning services to the National Health Insurance scheme to reduce the population rate further down whiles the nations’ makes financial savings which would have otherwise been spent on free maternal medical services. On infrastructure planning, Dr. Kwankye mentioned the Western Region where he predicted that due the oil discovery the population of the region will increase in the coming years with the mass migration of investors and skilled work force in search of jobs. He advised government to prioritize population issues in the planning of the oil city before the region becomes congested with unplanned structures to stem the increasing practice of paying compensation to persons whose property are demolished to make way for development projects. Dr. Kwankye also explained reasons that give rise to the incidence of number of women in the Ghanaian population, saying though at birth more females are born, unexplained natural conditions also make male babies more susceptible to life-threatening diseases. However he said during adolescence girls become more susceptible to life threatening illnesses owing to early sexual activity and child birth; whiles at the adult age, more men are engaged in labour intensive activity which reduces their life expectancy rate. He was more worried about the increasing rate of the youthful population and called for a national policy aimed at strategizing and identifying skills needed to make the youth more productive or risk losing them to other illegal activities. As part of the events to celebrate World population Day, the Ghana Population Council has planned a number of activities to draw attention to population issues until October 31st when the world population reaches seven billion. Story by Afia Pokua/Adom FM/Ghana