The Africa Centre for Human Rights and Sustainable Development (AfCHuRSD), a non-governmental organisation, has provided financial literacy training to women and girls with disability in small scale businesses in the Jirapa Municipality of the Upper West Region to enable them to sustain their trade.
They were also trained in branding and records keeping as well as introduced to financial products they could access from financial institutions to support their business growth.
The intervention was part of the implementation of the Promoting Equal Rights for Women and Girls with Disabilities (PERD) Project, aimed to protect the fundamental human rights of women and girls with disability in and out of school, particularly their rights to employment and protection from sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
The project is being implemented by a consortium of women-led organisations – AfCHuRSD, Plan Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) and Women in Need (WIN), with funding from the Netherlands Embassy in Gha
na.
Speaking at the training in Jirapa, Madam Bernice Naah, the Executive Director, AfCHuRSD, touched on the necessity of the training, which was to help the women to sustain their businesses.
‘Some of you have been in these businesses for long but you are not able to expand because you spend your capital.
So we feel that by giving you this kind of training, you will know how to manage your finances to sustain your businesses,’ she said.
Madam Naah explained that they held similar training programmes in Sanarigu in the Northern Region and Nadowli in the Upper West Region.
She said they would provide start-up capital to the women and girls with disability, who had received the skills training and were interested in starting and managing their own small businesses.
The NGO had also built the confidence levels of the beneficiaries to appreciate their self-worth and engage in any legal economic activity of their choice.
The AfCHuRSD is implementing the project in the Jirapa Municipality, Nadowli-Kaleo Dist
rict, the Wa School for the Blind and School for the Death in the Upper West Region and Sagnarigu in the Northern Region.
The beneficiaries shared their testimonies to motivate those in small businesses but could not expand to take part in activities of the NGO to receive some support.
Ms Margaret Liere, a beneficiary, spoke about the support she received to start a soap-making business from which she was deriving the expected benefits, and commended the NGO for the intervention.
Mr Titus Danaa, the Head of Operations, Sonzele Rural Bank PLC in Jirapa, educated the participants on the various financial products available at the bank for small businesses and how they could take advantage to support their businesses.
He encouraged them to inculcate the habit of savings by opening accounts with the bank as well as to register their businesses, which were requirements for accessing bank loans.
Mr Mohamed Awal Abubakari, the Head of the Business Advisory Centre, Jirapa Municipality, took the participants thro
ugh business records keeping and planning on expenditure, which was necessary for their business growth.
He said they ought to always know their needs and budget accordingly to avoid excess expenditure, which could ruin their businesses.
‘Some people end up spending on unplanned things … for such a person even if you are given the whole world you still can’t achieve anything from it,’ Mr Abubakari observed.
Madam Ayisha Nasiri-deen, Head of the Social Welfare Unit, Jirapa Municipal Assembly, encouraged the participants to take the knowledge and lessons from the training seriously to improve their businesses, which would impact their lives positively.
Source: Ghana News Agency
