By Caesar Abagali
Nadowli, (U/W), Nov. 4, GNA – A total of fifty (50) women and girls with disabilities operating small businesses in the Nadowli-Kaleo District of the Upper West Region have benefited from a business skills training workshop aimed at assisting them improve on their small businesses/ farming activities.
The training was under the Promoting Equal Rights for Women and Girls with Disabilities in Ghana (PERD) project being funded by the Netherlands Embassy in Ghana.
It is jointly implemented by a three-member consortium including Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), Women in Need (WIN), and the Africa Centre for Human Rights and Sustainable Development (AfCHuRSD).
Speaking during the opening ceremony of the one-day training programme, Madam Bernice Naah, the Executive Director of AfCHuRSD said the project was aimed at providing basic financial literacy, record keeping, access to credit, processes involved in opening an account with a bank, and savings culture, among others.
She said the training was also aimed at providing knowledge and skills to improve on the beneficiaries farming activities.
Madam Naah said the objectives of PERD were to contribute towards the protection of the fundamental human rights particularly sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls with disability in Ghana.
“It is also to empower them to pursue employment opportunities and advocate for the development and implementation of the inclusive equitable employment policy for them in public and private sector institutions in Ghana”, the Executive Director of AfCHuRSD said.
She said participants should not to be afraid to access credit once they have a sound business idea and also urged them to take steps towards registering their businesses so that they could be linked up to financial institutions for credit.
Madam Katherine Lankono, the Nadowli-Kaleo District Chief Executive (DCE) lauded AfCHuRSD and partners for organizing the training for women and girls with disabilities in the district.
She said the training on bookkeeping would also go a long way to help the beneficiaries in the efficient management of the three percent Disability Common Fund (DCF) they accessed to start their businesses.
She said in the district, the fund was lodged directly into the Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) account to promote easy accessibility.
The DCE said based on past experiences where beneficiaries failed to invest the money into their businesses, they now used the money to purchase whatever items the person requires and help set up the business for the person.
She said with this strategy, most of the PWDs in the district that accessed the fund were doing very well, adding that, the business skills training being provided by AfCHuRSD and partners was exactly what they now needed for efficient management of funds in order to experience growth in their businesses.
Mr George Bagooro, the Nadowli-Kaleo District Manager of the Sonzele Rural Bank, took participants through how to identify a potentially viable business, processes involved in accessing credit from financial institutions and how to efficiently manage funds to experience growth in their businesses.
Mr Abdulai Kyegnye, an Agriculture Extension Agent (AEA) in the District, took participants through improved farming skills and advised them to join PWDs farmer groups in the district in order to learn more.
GNA