The government is seeking to turn Ghana’s waste management sector into a major source of employment and economic activity, with plans to create at least 20,000 permanent jobs through waste management and the circular economy.
Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mahama Ayariga, said the planned nationwide sanitation reforms would combine waste collection, recycling and waste-to-energy initiatives while creating opportunities for young people, particularly women.
“We hope to create not less than 20,000 permanent jobs in waste management and the circular economy. I’m being very conservative here,” he said.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Monday, October 5, 2026, Mr Ayariga said the government was developing a new sanitation management system supported by investments in waste collection vehicles, tricycles, household waste bins, transfer stations and engineered landfill sites.
He said the proposed system would not only address sanitation challenges but also create a structured value chain capable of generating revenue from waste.
Waste as an economic resource
According to the Minister, the government intends to generate revenue through household waste collection charges, recycling activities and companies involved in converting waste into energy.
He said the government would initially finance the required infrastructure but expected to recover the investment through revenues generated within the new waste management system.
The Finance Minister, Ato Forson, is awaiting the full cost of constructing engineered landfill sites in all regional capitals and waste transfer stations in every Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembly (MMDA), Mr Ayariga said.
The proposed infrastructure is expected to form the backbone of a more integrated national sanitation system.
More opportunities for women
Mr Ayariga said the government also wanted to change the nature of work within the waste collection chain to make the sector more accessible to women.
He said the current use of open-bucket tricycles was largely dominated by men, with both riders and helpers typically being male.
“I go to the transfer stations, and I stand there and observe, and every tricycle that comes there, the rider is a man. His helper is a man,” he said.
The government therefore plans to replace the open-bucket tricycles with self-loading and self-tipping vehicles, which he said could be operated more easily by young women.
“And we believe that those can be easily operated also by young girls,” he said.
Mr Ayariga, however, stressed that the proposed reforms were not intended to drive existing operators out of business.
“There are people already involved in using tricycles to convey the waste. There are people using trucks to convey the waste. We don’t want to displace them,” he said.
“We want to assure them that the new system that we’re going to operate will have them included.”
Tackling sanitation crisis
The planned reforms come as the government steps up efforts to address persistent sanitation problems across the country.
Mr Ayariga cited the evacuation of accumulated waste at Abossey Okai as part of the interventions initiated after President John Dramani Mahama directed that sanitation challenges be tackled “head-on.”
The government is expected to use the proposed infrastructure and circular economy model to improve waste collection and disposal while extracting economic value from waste.
