By Edward Williams
Jasikan (O/R), Mar. 22, GNA – The District Working Group (DWG) for the Financial Inclusion for Last Mile Actors (FILMA) project aimed at reducing youth unemployment in rural Ghana has been inaugurated in Jasikan of the Oti Region.
The Project is a Mastercard Foundation co-created project with Temple Investments Limited, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), AV Ventures and SEND GHANA which would target 100,000 young people aged 15 to 35 years across 18 districts in the Volta, Oti, Bono-East and Northern regions.
Mr Joel Aweyam, Oti Regional Project Officer for SEND GHANA on the FILMA Project told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the Temple Investments Limited was responsible for access to finance, CRS responsible for mobilisation and capacity building and AV Ventures responsible for access to market.
He said SEND GHANA was responsible for ecosystem development through advocating for policies and programmes that enhanced young people’s access to financial inclusive services.
Mr Aweyam said SEND GHANA would work to remove cultural and structural barriers that hindered young women and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) access to financial opportunities at three levels.
“The levels are the Gender Model Family (GMF) approach which will be used at the community level to address gender imbalances and time poverty at the community level, District Working Group (DWG) and the National Forum for Job Creation.”
He said the DWG inaugurated in Jasikan encompassed Departments of Agriculture, Social Welfare and Community Development, Health Directorate, Gender Desk, National Youth Authority, National Identification Authority, media, credit unions, rural and commercial banks, private pension providers and traditional authorities.
Others are District Federation of the Disabled, GMF representatives, faith-based organisations, women and youth focused groups, Village Savings and Loans Association as well as District Multipurpose Cooperatives.
Mr Aweyam said the DWG’s overall goal was to foster and strengthen relational change in the financial inclusion ecosystem as well as amplify the voice of Last Mile Actors (LMAs) who were the vulnerable young women and PWDs.
He said the DWG would ensure the promotion of policies and practices that would be beneficial to the financial inclusion of LMAs.
Mr Aweyam said the Group would also facilitate FILMA District Annual Youth Job Creator, Youth in Agriculture and Young Women in Agriculture awards of the year.
He noted that the first meeting of the Group was held and there would be a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the DWG and SEND GHANA to commit the parties to agreed activities adding that the MoU would provide details on the specific activities each member of the Group would carry out in the course of its life.
The project will span for four years.
GNA
MA/LAA