Campaign to exempt kayayes from paying tolls initiated

The Pamela Bridgewater Project has started a campaign aimed at compelling metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) authorities to granting tax exemption to head porters (kayayei).

The campaign, which has received the endorsement of former presidents John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufour, is to pressure city mayors and other policy makers to consider the current practice of asking the head porters to pay daily tolls for carrying goods.

The Pamela Bridgewater Project, campaigns for a better future for the kayayeis through education, advocacy, awareness creation, research, and the protection of their fundamental human rights.

The project director of the Pamela Bridgewater Project, Mr. Yahaya Alhassan, said in an interview that the head porters are vulnerable groups, which qualifies them to be exempted from the payment of taxes and other tolls to the state.

He said that “our leaders face an historic moral duty by publicly announcing tax exemption for kayayeis”. “What is more worrying is the apocalyptic way of forcing the girls to pay the tolls by the ‘Abayei’ men of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly” he adds.

He revealed that a survey conducted by the Kunata Voluntary Organisation (KVO) - the parent company of the Bridgewater Project- indicated that about 95% of Ghanaians are unaware that head porters pay taxes to the state. Most were also surprised by the revelation that the tax authorities target kayayeis.

Mr. Alhassan said the plight of the kayayei is of uttermost concern to President John Mahama and he expressed optimism that the latter will direct the relevant institutions of state to bring an end to what he called “unhealthy tax act”.