Some 5,000 people living on low-incomes in poor housing in the Ghanaian city of Kumasi have been given better access to toilet facilities thanks to a project that uses an innovative business model.

More than 1,000 toilets have been provided to residents under the scheme, designed by Ideo.org, a non-profit spin-off from Ideo, an innovation and design consultancy. Some 80 per cent of the population of Kumasi lacks domestic sanitation.

To prepare for the project, Ideo interviewed families about the kinds of sanitation they used. It found people were either defecating in the open or using poorly maintained public toilets. The only other option for them was to invest in a pit latrine, which are expensive to install and need to be emptied periodically by vacuum trucks, further adding to the cost.