Kayayei: the women head porters of southern 
Ghana 
JAMES ADU OPARE1 
ABSTRACT 
For over a decade now, southern Ghana has witnessed a growing 
influx of young women and teenage girls-whose sole business is to 
engage in the lie ad porterage of goods. This paper offers 
information on who these women and girls are, why they migrate 
from their places of origin, why they engage in that business and the 
plans they have for the future. A non-random sample of 700 subjects 
were selected for the study. Unstructured interviews and personal 
observation were used as the tools for data collection. It was found 
that most of the woman porters hail from the savanna zones of 
northern Ghana and adjoining areas of Burkina Faso and Togo. 
They move down south to work and save money for various forms of 
investment. The paper attributes the push factor, poverty, to the 
interplay of natural phenomena and human agency. Suggestions for 
policy measures are offered. 
KEYWORDS 
exploitation, head porterage, migration, poverty, women 
Introduction 
It is an undeniable fact that, given sufficient opportunities for 
employment, income, personal fulfilment, a more equitable distribution 
of resources, wealth and so on, most people would choose to stay 
close to their loved ones and their culture. In the absence of such an 
1 Department of Educational Foundations, University of Cape Coast. Cape 
Coast, Ghana 
VOL 18'NO 2 JULY 2003 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 33
ideal world, people have to move (Klein 2000). In the face of population 
growth, competition for land and decreasing farm productivity, for 
example, migration either for a short term or a long term is usually 
considered a worthwhile alternative to poverty and deprivation at home 
(Netting 1993). The situation recounted above may explain the recent 
trends in the short term southward migration of women within the West 
African sub-region. 
For over a decade now there has been an high rate of migration of 
teenage girls and young women who have never been to school, as well 
as those who have some limited schooling, into leading market centres 
in southern Ghana. Those teenage girls and young women come 
principally from the savanna regions of northern Ghana and contiguous 
areas in Burkina Faso and Togo. A small number of them come from 
other parts of southern Ghana. While in the south these teenage girls 
and young women engage almost exclusively in the carrying of luggage 
on their heads for a fee. A woman who engages in such a business is 
referred to as a kayayoo. 
Kaya in the Hausa language means luggage, load or goods. Yoo 
means woman in Ga, the language of the indigenes of Accra, the 
Ghanaian capital. A kayayoo is thus a young woman or a teenage girl 
who carries other people's loads on the head for a fee. The plural form 
of yoo is yei, hence kayayei are women head porters. Because such 
women are ubiquitous in the towns and cities of southern Ghana, the 
imnskayayoo and kayayei have become part of the Ghanaian commercial 
vocabulary. 
Conceptual framework 
Merton (1968) postulated that social systems have structures of 
opportunity that enable individuals and groups to pursue and achieve 
their individual and collective goals and aspirations. This suggests 
that, wherever and whenever opportunity structures are absent or are 
limited in a social system, it becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible, 
for individuals and groups to achieve their goals and aspirations. 
Whenever opportunity structures are viable and fully functioning, 
individuals and groups feel a sense of security in the environment. 
34 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 18 NO 2 JULY 2003
Opare/WOMEN HEAD PORTERS OF SOUTHERN GHANA 
The frustrations resulting from their inability to achieve their aspirations 
in a given social system can cause strains and stresses among some 
social actors. In this event, ambition and frustration can impel the 
adventurous to seek ways of achieving their goals and aspirations. 
One way is to move out of the environment to seek their fortunes. 
The phenomenal rise in the rate at which teenage girls and young 
women these days move down south from the northern savanna zone 
of Ghana and adjoining areas of Burkina Faso and Togo could be 
explained within the context of Merton's opportunity structure 
postulate. 
Review of the literature 
Until recently in Africa, the tendency of women to move away Trom 
home has been due principally to marriage and marriage-related factors. 
On marriage, a woman has to leave her natal home to go and live with 
her husband in another town or village. With the advent of waged 
employment, men have had to migrate from economically lethargic areas 
into economically vibrant areas, taking their wives with them. 
In some cases, however, the men do not take their wives along with 
them when they embark on their travels. In cases when remittances are 
spasmodic and inadequate the women, who have long been 
economically dependent on their husbands, usually face untold 
hardships. The hardships compel some of these women to seek divorce. 
Owing to their long economic dependence on their husbands, women 
who divorce tend to become destitute. Such women sometimes tend to 
flee to the towns and cities as an escape from poverty (Adepqju 1986). 
Another marriage-related cause of women's migration, according to 
Nukunya (1969), is polygamy. According to this view, women in 
polygamous marriages often have to compete among themselves to 
win the favour and attention of their husbands. Such competition usually 
breeds jealousy, frustration and even hatred. Moving out to make money 
and come back to outshine one's rivals thus becomes a plan of action 
for some of such women. Interestingly, however, these marriage-related 
migrations of women have not attracted attention and critical comment. 
(Warren 1981). 
VOL 18 NO 2 JULY 2003 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 35
Modern school education, too. has been a powerful factor contributing 
to the migration of young women in recent times. The migration of 
educated women for and waged employment is not a recent development. 
Since pre-independence times formal education has been linked in 
people's minds with jobs in the modern sector. On leaving school, both 
men and women have to flock to towns and cities in search for modern 
sector jobs (D'Aeth, 1983). With the increased participation of women 
in formal education, the cityward drift of school leavers has been on the 
rise. Until the beginning of the 1990s, therefore, the large-scale movement 
of young women into the cities has been associated principally with 
those educated at school. The migration of young women and teenage 
girls with little or no formal education, though noteworthy, has not 
been as voluminous as that of the school-educated. 
A recent trend in women's migration in West Africa is the movement 
of young women and teenage girls from the northern savanna zones into 
market centres of southern Ghana. The rising rate of this phenomenon 
has attracted research interest in Ghana. The most insightful of these 
works are those of Agarwal, et al. (1994), Apt et al.( 1992) and Apt et al. 
(mimeo). 
The gist of all these works is that these women move down south to 
serve as head load carriers because, as school dropouts as well as 
unschooled youngsters, they possess hardly any skills besides farming. 
They engage in the kaya business because they see it as the only selfemployment 
that could enable them to acquire minimum assets for either 
a better marriage or prospects for future investment in more lucrative 
ventures. These youngsters actually get the blessing of parents and 
relatives to embark on the southward adventure, because, the 
opportunities for employment and savings are so limited in their home 
towns and villages. 
As to why these young women do not use any transport technology 
in their business as their male counterparts do. the explanation offered 
by researchers is that the kaya business, like petty trading, belongs to 
the informal sector of the economy. It is the most readily available form 
of informal self employment for young immigrants who possess no 
36 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 18 NO 2 JULY 2003
Opare/WOMEN HEAD PORTERS OF SOUTHERN GHANA 
non-human capital (Agarwal et al. 1994, Apt et al. [mineo], Ardayfio- 
Schandorf and Kwafo-Akoto 1990). 
The wider context in northern Ghana 
There is abject poverty in the places where the kayayei come from 
which tends to push them out to improve their economic position. A 
brief description of the conditions prevailing in northern Ghana and 
contiguous areas of Burkina Faso and Togo follows, together with an 
account for both the natural and human agents responsible for these 
conditions. 
For more than a decade now the rainfall pattern in the geographical 
area under discussion has been disappointing. This has been causing 
long periods of drought which lead, in turn, to incessant crop failures 
with low incomes and poverty. One would have expected that some 
pragmatic attempts would be made to arrest the crippling situation. 
Unfortunately, however, hardly anything meaningful has been done. 
The contribution of humans is even more serious. For decades there 
has been over-farming and over-grazing in the savanna lands of West 
Africa. These bad agricultural practices have rendered the soils that are 
thin and poor in many places. Such soils cannot support crops, resulting 
in incessant low crop yields, low incomes, famine and poverty. Nothing 
meaningful has been done to reverse the damage. The states affected 
have not been able to co-operate and embark on any pragmatic or longterm 
measures to ameliorate the conditions in that sub-region. Given 
the harsh ecological conditions, women who depend on rain-fed peasant 
fanning for a living have had to contend with the problem of poor soils, 
low crop yields, famine and poverty. The young ones find it 
economically expedient to move out of the area, at least temporarily. 
Another human agency dimension is that of inadequate job creation. 
One measure taken under structural adjustment has been a reduction in 
government size, leading to labour retrenchment. As a result, hundreds 
of thousands of workers have been thrown out of work. Since few new 
jobs are created to absorb those laid-off, unemployment is constantly 
on the rise. Women whose husbands are out of employment have been 
VOL 18 NO'2 JULY 2003 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL bEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 37
compelled to take up the kaya business in order to earn an income to 
support their families. Such women tend to be southern Ghanaians. 
A third human agency factor is that of another government policy. 
Following structural adjustments in the economies of some West African 
countries, subsidies on agricultural inputs such as seeds, chemicals, 
tools and tractor hiring have been removed. The removal of these 
subsidies has made farming even more expensive for women who 
invariably have no access to credit. (Krueger et al. 1988). 
The study 
The purpose of this study is to account for the growing increase in the 
trend of the southward migration of young women. To this end the 
following research questions will be used as a guide. 
Who are the kayayei? 
• Why do the kayayei engage almost exclusively in the carrying of 
head loads for a fee? 
• Why is it that it is women, not men who carry head loads? 
• Why do they not employ any form of transport technology? 
• What factors prompt the kayayei to move down south? 
• What is the nature of the kaya business? 
• What problems do the kayayei face in their business? 
• How do the kayayei manage their finances? 
• What are the future plans of the kayayeil 
Data and measures 
The sample 
Data for this study were collected from a non-random sample of 700 
young women and teenage girls. Selecting a random sample was 
impossible because in the first place the kayayei did not stay long 
enough in the same place for easy contact. Secondly, because they 
were so busy many of the kayayei were not willing to be engaged in 
any conversation lasting more than five minutes. In view of this, only 
those kayayei who allowed us to interview them during their break 
periods were involved in the study. Through this process the sample of 
700 could be selected by convenience from all the major markets in the 
38 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 18 NO 2 JULY 2003
Opare/WOMEN HEAD PORTERS OF SOUTHERN GHANA 
Accra-Tema metropolitan area. The selected subjects were interviewed 
in Hausa, Twi or Ga (in most cases through an interpreter). 
Instruments and procedure 
Data were collected using both unstructured interviews and personal 
observation. On some occasions those kayayei who were willing were 
grouped together in conversation. Snchkayayei were usually Dagomba 
girls who could speak Asante Twi fluently. 
The markets were visited on several occasions to observe how the 
kayayoo business was conducted. Efforts were made to identify places 
where the kayayei used to group together during their rest hours. Those 
who were willing were engaged in exclusive interviews. During the 
discussion any friend around who wanted to chip in an answer or a 
piece of information was allowed to do so. On some occasions all those 
gathered were engaged in a discussion and the explanations collectively 
offered were recorded. 
Variables 
This is both a quantitative and an ethnographic study. Some of the 
variables are quantifiable while others are not. The quantifiable variables 
are the respondent's father's education and the education of the 
respondent herself. These were measured in terms of level of education 
attained. These were coded as follows: 1. no schooling; 2 primary; 3, 
secondary; 4, more than secondary. In the case of the respondents 
themselves, the categories were 1, no schooling; 2, primary; 3, junior 
secondary/middle school and 4, secondary. The other variable is the age 
of the respondent. The first category was under 15 years; the second, 16 
to 20 years; the third, 21 to 30 years and the fourth, 31 years and above. 
The ethnographic data gathered were recorded at the end of the 
day's fieldwork. Some key issues were, however, recorded in the course 
of the discussions and unobstrusive observations. 
Analysis and results 
Simple frequency and percentage distributions were used to present 
the data purported to yield answers to the research questions. To answer 
VOL 18 NO 2 JULY 2003 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 39
Table I: Educational attainment of fathers 
Level of education Frequency Percentage 
32.1 
0.6 
0.0 
No schooling 
Primary/middle schooling 
Secondary schooling 
More than secondary 
471 
225
4
0 
TOTAL 700 100.0 
the first research question. "Who are the kayayei?\ the respondent 
was asked to indicate the level of education attained by her father. The 
father's education was used to represent the parents" education because, 
in the region where the kayayei come from more emphasis is put the 
education of boys and very few mothers have been to school. The data 
in Table I indicate that most of the kayayei came from homes where 
their fathers had either never been to school or had limited amounts of 
schooling. This suggests that such fathers were not in high status, 
high income-yielding occupations. Most of thekayayei therefore came 
from economically disadvantaged homes. 
In the second step, the respondent was asked to indicate her age. As 
indicated in Table II most of the kayayei were aged between 16 and 30 
years. This shows that they were youthful and economically active 
members of their communities. 
In the third step the distribution of the kayayei by level of education 
was studied alongside their age. Table III presents the various age 
groups by level of education. 
Table II Distribution of kayayei by age 
Age group Frequency Percentage 
Less than 15 years 49 7 
16-20 years 315 45 
21-30 years 260 37 
31 years and above 76 11 
TOTAL 700 100 
40 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 18 NO 2 JULY 2003
Opare/WOMEN HEAD PORTERS OF SOUTHERN GHANA 
3 6-20 
% 
1 + 
%
76 
Freq. 
199 
Freq. 
210 66.7 
37 24 92 38 
76.5 
23.5 29.2 
4.1 13 0 
Table III: Education and age groups of kayayei 
1 2 I -30 
% 
under 15 
Freq % 
63 31 
18
0
0 
Education 
No schooling 
Primary 
Juniorsec/middle 
Secondary 
Freq. 
58 
18
0
0 0 0 
Table IV: Distribution of kayayei by place of origin 
Origin Frequency Percentage 
Dagbon 335 47.9 
Mamprugu 75 10.7 
Gonja 70 10.0 
Bimboba 65 9.3 
South 56 8. 
Kotokoli 50 7.1 
Mossi 49 7 
TOTAL 700 100 
The data indicate that a majority of the kayayei had either no schooling 
or very limited schooling. From observation it was found necessary to 
put \he kayayei into three main categories. The first category was made 
up of young girls under the age of 15(9-12 years, to be precise). These 
girls were found to be staying with relatives who were already well 
established in the city. The second category was made up of those 
aged between 16 and 30 years. Most of these women were found to live 
and work under dismal conditions. They spent their nights in booths 
and market stalls, on verandahs in front of store houses and other such 
places. They had virtually nowhere to wash themselves except the public 
baths attached to the markets. 
The third category was made up of women aged between 31 and 40 
years. Although some of these women were found living in modest 
accommodation with their children, they were in the minority. They had 
VOL 18 NO 2 JULY 2003 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 41
been compelled by deteriorating economic conditions to enter into the 
kayayoo business in order to make some money to help run the home. 
To leam more about who the kayayei were it became necessary to 
find out where they came from. Table IV shows the distribution of these 
female head load carriers by place of origin. Grouping together those 
from Dagbon, Mamprugu, Gonja and Bimboba it is clear that almost 80 
per cent of the kaxayei in this study hailed from the northern region of 
Ghana. The rest came from southern Ghana and neighbouring countries. 
The next research question was concerned with why the kayaxei 
were engaged almost exclusively in the tow business. Four mam reasons 
for entering into the business were offered, as shown in Table V. From 
this table it is clear that the women and teenage girls have good reasons 
for being in the kaya business. The majority wanted to save money to 
enter into large-scale trading or other sedentary work because, according 
to them, the opportunities for building up the necessary capital did not 
exist in their place of origin. Another is that they wanted to save money, 
not only for investment, but also to buy personal effects in readiness 
for marriage. They needed items such as clothes, shoes, jewels, 
kitchenware and other essential items which society expects a newlywed 
to take to her matrimonial home. 
Other women were in the business because their husbands had lost 
their jobs. Such women, mainly in their 30s and 40s. had to eam money 
to survive and to support their children in school. The last group was 
made up of girls who should have been in school. These girls indicated 
that they were working to save money to buy tools and enter into 
Table V: Reasons for entering the kaya business 
Reason Percentage Frequency 
57.3 
55.4 
10.9 
5.6 
10 
Savings for future investment 401 
Save for marriage needs 388 
Support family 76 
Save for apprenticeship 39 
No definite reason 1.4 
ScvE RESPONDENTS OFFFERED SEVERAL REASONS 
42 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 18 NO 2 JULY 2003
Opare/WOMEN HEAD PORTERS OF SOUTHERN GHANA 
apprenticeships. Dressmaking and hairdressing were (he most popular 
trades cited. 
From the reasons offered it can be concluded, as an answer to the 
research question, that the young women and girls were in the kava 
business because they needed money for many things, investment 
being the principal one. They had to move down south because they 
had very limited opportunities for realizing their goals in their place of 
origin. They engaged almost exclusively in the kayn business because 
it requires virtually no capital outlay. 
The next research question was why it is women, not men. who 
engage in the kaya business and why they did not use any form of 
transport. Prom conversations with the kayaxei and through personal 
observation it was learned that the kayn business is a specialized one 
because carrying of loads on the head is thought of as women's work, 
whereas carrying luggage on a cart (called a "truck") is a man's job. 
They explained that pushing a truck is hard work that is considered 
masculine. These explanations are consistent with those of Agarwal et 
al. (1994) and Aptet a). (1992), according to whom petty trading in the 
informal sector, including head porterage, lies primarily in the domain of 
women. As to why ih&kayayei do not use any form of transport in their 
business the answer, as inferred by Agarwal et al. (1994) and Apt et al. 
(1992)is that, as the kayayei do not intend to stay long in the south, 
there is no need to invest in any such technology. 
The next research question concerns Ihe nature of the kayn business. 
It was observed that the women operate in major market centres in 
southern Ghanaian towns and cities and their clients are mainly women. 
The market women usually engage them to carry their wares from storage 
points in the morning. At the end of the days business, they carry the 
goods back to the storage points. In many cases the kayayei have to 
walk from place IO place, looking for clients. Others sit together, wailing 
to be engaged. At other limes they have to follow women shoppers to 
assist them by carrying their luggage as they shop and as they go to 
the carpark after shopping. Traders, like shoppers, also engage the 
kayayei to carry their luggage to the transport terminals. In all these 
VOL 18 NO 2 JULY 2003 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
cases the kayayoo is paid a fee that has already been agreed upon at 
the end of the service. 
In the course of rendering their services, the kayayei could be cheated 
by their clients, most of whom are themselves women. A case in point 
was a 19 year-old Burkinab6 woman who once carried a woman's luggage 
from the central business area of Accra to another place some 1.5 km 
away. The client failed to pay the fee mutually agreed upon. Instead, 
when she was comfortably seated in a bus, she threw half of the fee 
down to the kayayoo. According to the kayayoo some of their bitterest 
experiences in the course of their business come from their women 
clients. It is because of abuses such as these that the kaya business is 
perceived in certain quarters as an exploitation of women by women 
(Amuzu 1999) 
The ethnographic study revealed that the kayayei are really 
vulnerable. Some of those without fixed addresses keep their personal 
effects with relatives in town. Sometimes these trusted relatives cheat 
them. A case in point was an 18 year-old woman from Kumbungu in the 
northern region of Ghana, who could not go back home to get married 
as planned because the uncle who had taken custody of her personal 
effects could not account for them. Another case was that of a 16 yearold 
Burkinab6 girl who could not go back to her village because her 
distant relative could not account for almost all the kitchenware. clothes 
and other non-cash possessions that had been lodged with her. 
They also face the problem of sexual harassment and abuse. 
Occasionally, especially on rainy nights, some men who appear decent 
offer them shelter but end up taking advantage of the women and 
sexually abusing them. It is not surprising then that the incidence of 
unwanted pregnancies is so high among these women. Indeed it has 
been indicated in newspaper reports that each month about 50 per cent 
of all children born to kayayei at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in 
Accra are abandoned by their mothers {Weekly Spectator 1999. p.6). 
Such children are always taken up by benevolent institutions. 
The next question was whether the kaya business served its purpose 
for the women moved down south. This question must be answered by 
44 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 18 NO 2 JULY 2003
Opare/WOMEN HEAD PORTERS OF SOUTHERN GHANA 
those who practice the business, for they experience it and know what 
they derive from it. Accordingly respondents were asked to give an idea 
of how much they made on an average day, how they managed their 
money and whether the business met their social and economic goals. 
It was learned that, compared with the ordinary unskilled and semiskilled 
Ghanaian worker, the averagekayayoo was doing really well. At 
the time of compiling data for this study the average kayayoo was 
making about twice the national daily minimum wage. Whether this is 
an overstatement or not is beside the point since it indicates that the 
average kayayoo earns more than the daily minimum wage. The kayayoo 
may be financially better off than the average unskilled or semi-skilled 
Ghanaian worker. However, considering the hazards they are exposed 
to, the abuses they have to undergo and the fact that they have no 
social security, it is clear that the long-term effects of the work on the 
health and general life of these women are negative. A business like 
this can have long term private and social costs. 
As a way of managing their finances the kayayei save some of their 
earnings through the popular non-banking savings system known as 
susu. An individual contributor pays a fixed amount of money daily to 
a susu collector for a period of 30 days. The collector keeps a day's 
contribution as his commission. After collecting the month's haul most 
of the kayayei save the bulk with the formal banking system. The very 
young ones, however, save their money with the relatives they live 
with. As to whether the head porterage business was serving the 
purpose for which they moved down south, more than half the kayayei 
were of the view that it served as a better alternative to the life of 
poverty and deprivation they had to contend with back at home. 
The last research question was whether the kayayei had plans for 
the future. The data in Table V on why the kayayei move down south 
answered this question. Rational or non-rational as the kaya venture 
may seem to be, it is an undeniable fact that those in the business have 
realistic plans for the future: they all want to save money for various 
things—investment, apprenticeship and the purchase of personal effects 
as well as to keep body and soul together. 
VOL 18 NO 2 JULY 2003 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
Summary and discussion 
Thekayayei are teenage girls and young women who come mainly from 
the savanna zones of the northern region of Ghana. Others come from 
Burkina Faso and Togo. A limited number come from southern Ghana 
itself. Those from the north move south because of the abject poverty 
in their home areas. Unskilled as they, are they have to engage in the loadcarrying 
business because it entails little or no capital outlay. No 
transport is used because, in the eyes of the public, the use of trucks is 
too laborious and masculine for women. Furthermore, their stay in the 
south was for too short a period for it to be economically viable to invest 
in expensive technology. This explanation is consistent with inferences 
drawn by Agarwal et al. (1994). Finally the study has shown that the 
kayayei make some money which they manage well. 
Conclusion 
Human action is calculated and based on rational choices and goaldirected 
decisions. It is therefore plausible to contend, on the basis of 
Merton's opportunity structure postulate, that wherever and whenever 
opportunity structures are limited, some members of the social system 
take the goal-directed action of seeking their fortune outside the 
environment. The southward migration of unschooled and minimally 
educated teenage girls and young women from the savanna zone of 
West Africa is thus a realistic adaptation of the young women to the 
frustrating conditions in which they live. 
Suggestions for poDcy measures 
On the macro-economic scale, the problem of drought can be addressed 
through inter-state collaboration. Contiguous states need to embark on 
joint irrigation and dry fanning projects to boost agricultural production 
and reduce famine and poverty. New genetic materials, particularly less 
water-dependent and disease-resistant crops and livestock must be 
distributed throughout the sub-region. The states involved would reap 
greater benefits if they were receptive to technologies that have worked 
under similar conditions elsewhere, rather than to embark on localespecific 
basic research. In addition agroforestry needs to address the 
46 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 18 NO 2 JULY 2003
Opare/WOMEN HEAD PORTERS OF SOUTHERN GHANA 
agricultural environment problem. Extension service departments in the 
states concerned need to be strengthened and better resourced to 
disseminate the innovations found. 
The removal of subsidies on agricultural inputs makes farming more 
expensive, especially for women with limited access to land and credit. 
It would be beneficial to reintroduce subsidies on agricultural inputs 
that are frequently used by women. An agricultural tax on luxury goods, 
for example, could be levied to raise revenue to support women in 
agriculture. It would be all the more beneficial if women's organizations 
would organize women farmers into co-operatives to enable fhem have 
access to credit. These measures would make agriculture less repulsive 
to ambitious young women. 
As far as the working conditions and life prospects of the women 
themselves, there is no doubt that the kayayei make and for some time 
to come will continue to make, useful contributions to the economy of 
(southern) Ghana. It is a pity, however, that they live and work under 
such deplorable conditions, including being all too frequently the victims 
of sexual abuse. The plight of these vulnerable women would be 
improved if non-governmental organizations were invited, encouraged 
and supported to provide affordable dormitory accommodation for them. 
They should also be encouraged to provide vocational training and 
counselling services to the young kayayei by extending vocational 
counselling services in schools the them. 
The suggestions by Agarwal et al. (1994) are supported here. The 
kayayoo should be involved in adult literacy programmes. As a part of 
this programme they could undergo training in business management 
to enable them better to manage their businesses and finances. The 
education programme must include health education, especially on the 
causes, incidence, and prevention of HIV/AIDS. 
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