The Chief Commissioner for Ghana Girl Guide Association (GGGA) Zakiya Abdul Wahab has called on the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to make amend of his promise of scrapping import duties on sanitary pads.
In an interview with Noel Nutsugah on Zylofon FM‘s morning show, The StateCraft, Mrs. Zakiya Abdul Wahab stated that, the difficulty for the Ghanaian female, especially those in the rural areas, is affordability of the pads, a reason the organization is encouraging menstrual advocacy and dialogue especially during a pandemic where financial inequality gap has widened.
“Three years ago, we have petitioned the Office of the President to lobby for the removal of the 20% import tax on sanitary pads as well as categorization of pads as luxury items. This was after countless petitions from other menstrual advocacy groups. But the only thing we got was a promise”, she said.
She also recounted how at a political event held on August 22, 2020, where Vice president Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia reiterated the promise of eliminating import duties on sanitary pads to improve health conditions, particularly for girls, adding that if the country cannot produce the pads “we are going to eliminate import duties to bring down their cost in order to end period poverty”.
It is against this that Mrs. Wahab is calling on Dr. Bawumia to swiftly honour his promise as that will serve as a catalyst to ending period poverty in Ghana, while reminding the Vice President that period poverty exists because of huge taxation on sanitary products which she said are basic needs of all women around the world.
“We need to end this cycle of promises so government must expedite action to cancel the taxes on the sanitary products so as to eliminate period poverty across the country”.
Every year, World Menstrual Hygiene Day is observed on May 28 with the main objective of changing the social stigma associated with menstruation.
The date May 28, was uniquely chosen to reflect the average menstrual cycle for most women, which is 28 days, and lasts for five days. Hence, the date was kept as 28/5.
The theme for this year is: “Action and Investment in Menstrual Hygiene and Health”.
