FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS URGED TO GRANT WOMEN LOANS

31-01-2010 FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS URGED TO GRANT WOMEN LOANS
Narration: the Director for the Center of Sustainable Rural Development (CESRUD), Rex Asanga has appealed to financial institutions to help women access loans to help solidate their income generating activities. This, he said, would go a long way to ease the financial burden on their spouses. Mr Asanga disclosed this at the annual reunion Festival of the Sumbrungu Business Women Association (SUBWA) at Sumbrungu, a community in the Bolgatanga municipality. It was on the theme: “Local Dishes for Better Nutrition”. The event which is being supported by CESRUD was attended by a section of the public chiefs, assembly members, and various women groups among others. Isaac Asare has the rest of the story.
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The Sumbrungu Business Women Association comprises 82 women groups with a total membership of 2000 women drawn from all the four communities of Sumbrungu. The annual reunion festival was instituted by these women three years ago with the aim of bringing women in together in fostering unity amongst themselves to advocate and lobby on issues affecting women in the society. It is also aimed at helping to contribute to the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women as well as ensuring their own economic wellbeing. As part of activities marking the festival, a competition on the preparation of local dishes was organized for 46 women groups of which ten of them were commended after it was inspected by the award team. On display were some palatable local dishes including Kili, Tinton-Suma, Sammadaka, Ma-Asa among others. The Director of CESRUD, Mr Asanga called for the support of financial institutions to help women by granting them loans to help boost their income generating activities since it constitute as one of the major challenges facing women in the area and the region as a whole. He noted that despite the enormous contribution women play in bridging the poverty gap in the region, their plight and responsibilities are relegated to the background thus, making them poor and vulnerable in the society. Mr. Asanga also advised the chiefs and opinion leaders in the region to abolish all socio-cultural and dehumanizing practices against women to ensure their development. He therefore recommended awareness creation in education as the surest way at which women can be empowered. Mr Asanga later appealed to the Bolgatanga Municipal to help construct a permanent community library to facilitate the habit reading among students in the area. The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Awuni catalogued some of the pro poor policies instituted by the government and urged the people to embrace them. Mrs. Awuni entreated women to also take advantage of government’s Micro finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) to expand their businesses and ultimately enhance their livelihood. She called on Ghanaians to do away with the indiscriminate dumping of refuse in our various localities but rather adapt to good sanitary practices to rid the country of filth. Mrs. Awuni, accompanied by the Director of CESRUD, earlier commissioned two bedroom houses estimated at the cost of 16,000 Ghana cedis to some poor families in the community.