Africa-Press – Ghana. Mrs Fati Kine-Lam, the Sunyani East Constituency Women Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the government will soon roll out the Women Development Bank initiative.
She urged women in micro, small and medium scale businesses to prepare themselves well by planning and keeping records of their businesses to enable them to benefit from the initiative and thereby enhance their socio-economic livelihoods.
Mrs Kine-Lam, also the Bono Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) emphasized that: “The Women Development Bank initiative isn’t a mere political gimmick”.
She said the government was finalizing modalities for the establishment of the Bank, when she interacted with some queen mothers on the sidelines of an entrepreneurship training in Sunyani.
The Stewards Impact Foundation (SIF), a non-governmental organisation organised the training to build the capacities of some queen-mothers in the Bono Region on leveraging employable skills training to better their lots and also serve models in their localities.
Participants were selected from local communities in Berekum, Sunyani West, Dormaa Central and Sunyani Municipalities.
Mrs KIne-Lam explained that the Vice President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman remained sensitive to alleviating the plights of women and was spearheading the establishment of the bank.
She said with the bank, women in petty businesses and entrepreneurs could easily access soft loans to expand their business and thereby improve their businesses.
Mrs Kine-Lam advised that: “As wait patiently for the bank, you must put in place all the necessary documentation like your business registrations and plans so that you can easily access the loans”.
Earlier in a welcoming address, Odombarima Baffour Awuah Akomea Sakyi, the Chief Executive Officer of SIF explained that the training was in line with a project being implemented by the NGO for women empowerment.
Under the training which he added, was aligned with achieving the set target of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals SDGs 16, 5, 4, and 17, more than 200 queen-mothers would be trained within 12-weeks that would directly impact about 500 communities in the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions.
Odombarima Sakyi, also sub-chief at Asupra in the Dormaa Traditional Area of the region, advised queen-mothers to promote vocational education and entrepreneurship development to create more job opportunities in their respective localities.
The participants were also taken through community justice systems and how they could reduce conflicts and promote peaceful coexistence in their localities.
