Vice President Mahama exchanging pleasantries with Dr. Michael Baffoe, leader of the Canadian Centre on Disabilities Studies delegation. With them is Mr. Andrew Okai-Koi, third from right, Director of National Council On Persons With Disability and other
The government is expected to take delivery of 200 high occupancy buses from Brazil in October this year, to augment the country's commercial transport fleet.
Fifty per cent of the buses will have facilities friendly to people with disability, Vice-President John Mahama has announced.
This comes three days after the government inaugurated 490 Yutong buses in its bid to change the face and quality of mass road transportation in the country.
Vice-President Mahama, who disclosed this when members of the National Council on Persons With Disability called on him at the Castle, Osu yesterday, decried the difficulty in which persons with disability go through in accessing public means of transport.
He noted that the non-disability friendly nature of commercial transport in the country forced persons with disability to resort to the services of taxi cabs which charged relatively high transport fares.
Mr. Mahama urged the council to insist that public buildings have facilities that were friendly to the disabled, as had been enshrined in the disability law, to make it easier for people with disability to access such public buildings and facilities.
Members of the council, who were at the Castle to express their appreciation to the government for its commitment to issues concerning the disabled, were accompanied by a delegation from the Canadian Centre for Disability Studies.
The Centre has been working with the Council in promoting issues of the disabled.
The Vice-President observed that persons with disability in Ghana faced lots of challenges and advocated the need to priorities special needs of persons with disability.
In that regard, he said the experiences of the Canadian centre would be helpful to the government.
Mr. Andrew Okaikwei, Chairman of the National Council on Persons With Disability said the Canadian centre, which had been working in Ghana since 2008, had been collaborating with the council and the University of Ghana in sending graduate students in Social Work for courses on disability in Canada.
He said the centre was about to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to help in developing the content of the university's curriculum with respect to persons with disability.
Dr. Michael Baffoe, who led the Canadian delegation, said Ghana political stability had provided a legal framework within which to work.
He said the centre, which had been working in Ghana for some time now, also engaged in research and education.
In another development, Vice-President Mahama yesterday, presented computers and their accessories to executive members of the Kayayei Youth Association at the Castle, Osu.
The computers, which were received by Hajia Fati Alhassan, are to enable the leadership of the association to build a data base on all their members to make it easier for government to assist them.
Vice-President Mahama said the government intended to have enjoyments with the executives to see how Kayayei would be best assisted to realise their full potential.
Government, he stressed, was not only interested in addressing the problems of Kayayei but was also determinacy to solve the 'push and pull' factors that cause youth movements from the north to the south.
The association expressed appreciation to the governemt for the support and for its interest in the welfare of their members.
