POVERTY ALLEVIATION STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY FISHER FOLKS IN ELMINA IN THE KOMENDA-EDINA-EGUAFO-ABREM (KEEA) MUNICIPALITY.

ABSTRACT Poverty can be described as the lack of common things like food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water all of which determine the quality of life. Elmina, which is an ancient fishing community in the Central Region of Ghana, has fishing as a major occupation in the area. It was realized that in as much as fisher folks were doing everything possible to have good standard of living, they still found themselves in poverty. Although some were able to take care of their family’s basic needs. This study therefore sought to find out the strategies that the fisher folks of Elmina employed in alleviating themselves from poverty. With a household population of 6353, a sample size of 100 was selected using the systematic sampling technique. Interview guide was used for the data collection. The Cronbach’s coefficient alpha for the interview guide was 0.72. The data was analyzed using frequencies and percentages. The results from the study showed that, family resources that were available for reducing poverty included; canoe, house, car, shops and so on. It was shown that fisher folks faced challenges in alleviating themselves from poverty which included improper financial records with the use of their available resources. It is recommended that more education should be done to enlighten fisher folks on poverty and poverty alleviation. Furthermore, governments, stakeholders, cooperate bodies and non-governmental organizations should assist the fisher folks to overcome challenges such as improper records keeping with their sales in order to fully alleviate themselves from extreme poverty