22 BENEFIT FROM RURAL ENERPRISE PROJECT (PAGE 47)

Story: Joe Okyere, Twifo Praso

Twenty-two graduate apprentices in the Twifo-Heman-Lower Denkyira District (THLD) of the Central Region have benefited from a GH¢9,000 worth of tools under a rural enterprises project to enable them to set up their own businesses and train others.
They are made up of tailors and dressmakers, hair dressers, leather workers, carpenters, masons and bicycle repairers who have completed their apprenticeship but are unable to set up their own businesses due to lack of access to finance from the banks and end up undertaking different work or getting under-employed.
The rural enterprises project was set up to provide support for small groups with fund from the government of Ghana, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the African Development Bank and participating District Assemblies as part of government’s programme towards rural poverty reduction.
At the presentation ceremony, the co-ordinator of the Koforidua Zone of the Rural enterprises project, Mr Kwasi Amankwaah, said currently, the zone, comprising Central, Greater Accra, Eastern and Western regions, was implementing projects in 19 districts of the zone.
He said each district was entitled to access fund each year for at least 30 graduate apprentices.
Mr Amankwaah said this depended on the ability of the district to pay its counterpart fund of 20 per cent (GH¢2,000).
He said the beneficiary graduates were requested among others to sign an undertaking in respect of the support and pay mandatory five per cent of the total support either in cash or in kind.
He said 19 business advisory centres had been established in the participating districts for the promotion of micro and small scale enterprises and that as of December 2007, it had reached out to about 29,400 enterprises.
The District Chief Executive for the THLD, Mr Samuel Yaw Agyebi-Kessie, pledged the Assembly’s support for the recipients and reminded them of their responsibility to use the tools to expand their businesses and train others to create job and reduce poverty in their areas.
He said the Assembly would also support and encourage small scale business enterprises to establish a credit union to expand their businesses.
The Zonal Co-ordinator of the Rural Enterprises Project, Mr Johnson Azar, said his outfit would monitor the beneficiaries and cautioned them not to sell the tools since offenders would not be spared.