The Chief Executive and founder of Sunyani-based Global Media Foundation, Raphael Godlove Ahenu, has said that migration for livelihood purposes is crucial since it enables households to improve their living conditions in a sustained manner.

According to him, migration has played a significant role in terms of poverty reduction in Ghana over the years. He said that migrants have been able to send remittances which their households use for various purposes.

In the latest World Bank Migration and Development Brief, Ghana received the second-largest remittance inflow in dollar terms and the ninth-largest level with Gross Domestic Product in Africa.

Mr Ahenu said that "these remittances have helped to educate children, pay healthcare bills, and buy farm inputs to expand the scale of operations, provide start-up capital for off-farm businesses, acquire livestock, construct or maintain houses and many more."

Speaking with JoyNews’, he said that although migration has helped families to overcome household poverty in Ghana, some people still play down the importance of migration.

He stated that some researchers have shown a strong correlation between migration and poverty reduction.

He said the ability of internal migrants to bring economic benefits and reduce poverty depends on the nature of the migration undertaken and the relationship between migrants and their relatives left behind.

"Internal migration has a strong positive effect on overall development through its contribution to poverty reduction because it has implications for national development policies on migration," Mr Ahenu noted.

He said this calls for efforts to provide support for migrants at their places of destination, considering the pivotal role the remittances from internal migration could play in improving household welfare.

Mr Ahenu stated that "these remittances have contributed significantly to the improvement of the livelihood of most communities in the Bono Region."

According to him, this negatively downplays the dominant discourse that considers migration, especially internal migration.

A sports journalist in the Bono regional town of Wenchi, Job Oppong Agyei, said in an interview his brother's remittances have particularly helped his children.

He explained life has been more comfortable for the children and their mother since his brother’s migration.   

Job Oppong Agyei argued the extent to which migration is contributing to poverty reduction in the Bono region and its implications for Ghana’s development cannot be over-emphasised, hence the need for people to stop bastardising internal migration.