Mrs Agatha Ahia, an Assistant Director at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) said 62 percent of nearly 3,000 street children in Kumasi Metropolis are females.

Mrs Ahia was presenting a situation report on street children in Kumasi at a training workshop organised by the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment in collaboration with the KMA in Kumasi on Thursday.

The two-day workshop was aimed at strengthening the co-ordinating and monitoring roles of members of the District Project Review and Appraisal Committee (DISPRAC) with regard to issues of street children.

Mrs Ahia regretted that despite the high figure associated with street children in Kumasi, the number still continue to rise, "with females still dominating".

She said unless more pragmatic and concrete programmes were put in place to curb the influx of girls into the street, the government's policy of promoting girl-child education and gender balance would come to nought.

Mr Sampson Kwaku Boafo, Ashanti Regional Minister, regretted that even though Ghana is committed to the plight of children as evidenced by being the first country to ratify the UN convention on the rights of the child, the problem of street child persists.

He, however, gave the assurance that the problems would not deter the government as it is more poised to give "street children employable skills so as to reduce the social menace associated with them".

Mrs Cynthia Asare Bediako, Project Co-ordinator of the Community-Based Poverty Reduction Programme (Street Children component), advised agencies engaged in projects related to children to shift from providing them with mere skills to employable skills.

Mrs Bediako explained that such an approach was more beneficial since it could help street children to either get employed in the formal sector or become self-employed.

Mr Stephen K. Adongo, Ashanti Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare, entreated organisations implementing programmes on street children to revise their strategies to make them more effective.