Dr Alhaj Mohammed Bin Ibrahim, Brong-Ahafo Regional Director of Health Services, has said unless Ghanaians embraced family planning, poverty reduction programmes for sustainable development would not be achieved.

He said in an address read for him at the regional launch of the family planning campaign that "rapid population growth is a serious impediment to poverty reduction".

Dr Ibrahim expressed concern about the low registration of women in the fertile group as family planning accepters in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

''The regional programme was launched in Nkoranza because it is among districts with low registration and was to woo more of the people to register as accepters.''

He said by the end of last year there were only 153,241 women family planning accepters in the Region.

"Scientific evidence has shown that maternal or infant illness and death are highest in four specific types of pregnancy and these are pregnancy before 18 years, pregnancy after 35 years, pregnancy after four births and pregnancy less than two years apart," Dr Ibrahim said.

Mr Kwame Ampofo-Twumasi, District Chief Executive, appealed to the nurses at clinics in the District to organise regular education campaigns on the programme to get more people registered as accepters.

He gave the assurance that the Nkoranza District Assembly would offer the exercise the needed support for its success.

Nana Okofo Agyapong III, Adontenhene of Nkoranza, who presided at the function on behalf of the Omanhene of the Nkoranza Traditional Area, Okatakyie Agyeman Kudom IV, advised couples to plan their families to ensure the good health and steady development of their children.

Earlier, the staff and students of the Nkoranza St. Theresa's Junior Secondary School (JSS) marched through the streets with placards some of which read: "Use Condom Everyday - It's Your Life, It's Your Choice"; "Family Planning Makes a Happy Family" and "Family Planning Secures the Life of the Mother."