The Western Regional Office of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has urged traders at the Kojokrom Market to leverage digital platforms to promote their businesses instead of relying on their children to hawk their wares.
Mr Lan Kwame Tugbenu, Deputy Western Regional Director of the NCCE, made the call during the Commission’s third-quarter sensitisation programme on child labour at the Kojokrom Market in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis.
He explained that the digital space offered accessible tools for people seeking to improve their welfare and livelihoods.
Mr Tugbenu encouraged the traders to take advantage of social media platforms, including Facebook, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and WhatsApp, to advertise their goods to customers at minimal cost.
He described digital marketing as a safer and more effective alternative to sending children to hawk wares in often hazardous street conditions.
He advised traders against exposing children to the dangers of the streets during school hours and urged them to use social media, which offered a low-cost and wider-reaching means of marketing their goods.
Mr Tugbenu reminded the gathering that any work assigned to a child, defined under Ghanaian law as a person under 18 years, constituted child abuse and breached the Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560), and the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651).
He, however, clarified that children were not barred from learning about or supporting their parents’ trades, noting that such involvement became unlawful when it interfered with their access to education.
“Children must know the livelihoods of their parents and may assist them, but never at the expense of their schooling,” he added.
The sensitisation formed part of the NCCE’s ongoing efforts to raise public awareness about child labour and promote responsible parenting across the Western Region.
