Accra, Ghana • Social

Persons with disabilities have started appearing in campaign promises ahead of Ghana’s elections. But they have yet to enjoy the simple privilege of easily moving around their cities.

Lack of disability-friendly transport and widespread discrimination are frustrations persons with special Read moremobility needs have grown up with. 

Ghana first passed laws to protect persons with disabilities in 2006 after years of advocacy. While they mandate a disability-friendly transport space, that section of the law remains vague and does not prescribe sanctions for flouting it.

About 1 million of Ghana’s 30 million people have a physical challenge. Many of these people have been left with the most difficult option possible when it comes to navigating increasingly congested urban centres.

Sidewalks are cluttered with hawkers or poorly maintained and impassable for wheelchairs. 

Above all, commercial transport, primarily taxis and minibuses, which serve most of the urban population, is not disability-friendly.

Persons with mobility challenges struggle to access minibuses, the cheapest and most popular form of transport. For taxis, they sometimes have to pay four times the fare.

To adequately tell the story, I will talk to a couple of people with special mobility needs, the group that represents people with disabilities in Ghana, a couple of driver unions, a lawyer who sued over the discrimination of PWDs and Ghana's transport ministry.

Accra, Ghana • Sports

A Ghanaian music producer has been fighting the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since 2017 after it used his music without permission to promote an awards ceremony.

This music producer, Kwabena ‘Spiky’ Nkrumah, won the first part of the legal battle after a court ordered CAF to pay him Read morecompensation.

Getting his due compensation is the next hurdle, as CAF is refusing to pay up and dragging him into the quicksand of appeal processes.

There is little respect for the intellectual property of artists in Ghana, with artists unable to adequately profit from their work because of a lack of copyright safeguards. For example, research indicates that Ghana’s music industry loses an estimated $12 million annually to piracy.

Nkrumah, who says he is staring serious indebtedness in the face is crowdfunding to keep his legal battle alive, believes a victory over Africa's football governing body could be the signal artists in Ghana's need to stop compromising on the theft of their labour.