By P.K. Yankey
Kikam (W/R), June 05, GNA – Mr Paul Kodwo Kwaw, the Assembly Member for Kikam Electoral Area, has donated his monthly allowance of more than GH¢10,000 to sponsor a free entrepreneurship training programme for over 100 people in four communities in the Ellembelle District.
The two-day training programme was under the auspices of Self Development Partners, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), aimed at empowering people economically to be self-sufficient and earn extra income to become financially independent.
The trainees, most of whom were women, received free training in powered soap making, shower gel, toothpaste, frytol oil, weedicide, and fertilizer.
Beneficiary communities are Bobrama, Asemko, Kikam, and Kikam North.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during the training, Mr Kwaw, who is vying for the Ellembelle Constituency Secretary position of the national Democratic Congress (NDC), said the livelihood empowerment programme was the first of its kind since he became Assembly Member for the electoral area.
He said the initiative formed part of his annual life-changing interventions, which in the past included breast cancer awareness and eye screening exercises.
The Assembly Member said he raised funds to subsidise materials needed for the training from his monthly allowance and personal resources, with a little assistance from the NGO, as part of efforts to give back to the communities that gave him the mandate to serve.
Mr Kwaw said his next intervention would be training in the cultivation of ginger, which was also a lucrative business, to change their economic fortunes.
He noted that ginger was in high demand on the market and urged the people to take advantage of the rhizome.
Mr Samuel Ackah Cobbinah, the Resource Officer with Self Development Partners, told GNA in an interview that the Assembly Member sponsored materials for the training.
He said the trainees participated fully in the training session and were able to prepare the products themselves.
Mr Ackah Cobbinah advised the participants to take advantage of the training to become self-sufficient in indigenous organic products instead of patronising foreign products.
He said materials needed for the preparation of the products were available on the Ghanaian market and encouraged the people to be actively involved in production for both home consumption and on commercial basis.
Madam Sarah Onsonyameye, a participant from Kikam, on behalf of the participants, thanked the Kikam/Asemko Assembly Member for the life-changing experience to improve their living conditions.
She noted that unlike her previous training in soap making, the present one was very simple and less expensive to prepare the products.
Madam Onsonyameye appealed to those who could not take part in the training to approach the participants to benefit from their skills.
GNA
Edited by Justina Hilda Paaga/ Christabel Addo
P.K. Yankey S/345