Ending Rural poverty is key to rapid Econ Dev't

Hon. Ofosu Ampofo, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development

The Gender and Youth Development Coordinator of Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF), Ms Lovelace Eyram Kpogo has noted that the solution to move Ghana from its current economic status to a higher income country resides in pragmatic measures to resolve rural poverty.

Rural poverty, which usually manifests in the form of feminist poverty, according to her, has been identified to be one of the major and complex socio-economic problems bedeviling the Ghanaian economy, and stressed the need for holistic development approaches that target the rural poor, especially the rural women.

Ms Kpogo observed that nearly 60% of Ghana's population could be found in the rural part of the country, putting Ghana into the brackets of rural nations. She indicated that majority of the people in rural Ghana constitute the very poor in the country, with a greater percent of those rural poor being women.

This, Gender and Youth Development Coordinator of GLOMEF disclosed that it has necessitated the initiation of a project dubbed -'Rural Women Anti-poverty Project', which aims at empowering rural micro business women to expand their businesses, in order to reduce feminist poverty in the country.

Ms. Kpogo, who was speaking in an interview with The Chronicle, after interacting with some of the beneficiaries of the Scheme in Sunyani, announced that the foundation has since May, this year, disbursed more than ten thousand Ghana Cedis to about 15 women in the Sunyani West District and Sunyani Municipality in the Brong-Ahafo region, hinting that the project was expected to cover 50 more women before the end of this year.

She revealed that from next year the project would be expanded to cover more Districts in Brong-Ahafo, Ashanti and Northern regions, targeting more than one thousand women.

Under the project, a loan facility known as 'Women Empowerment Loan Scheme' has been established, as well as a component that seeks to train about 500 young rural women on self-employable skills, such as soap and pomade production, batik and tie and dye making, and  training in business management.

 Miss Kpogo attributed the problems of unemployment and under-employment in Ghana to lack of access to financial services, particularly credit, which would allow micro-business operations to increase their income and generate employment.

According to her, the main sources of credit to the poor have traditionally been informal lenders, and investment lenders, who charge over 50% interest.

She noted that the poor have not been served by the private banking sector because lending to them in a conventional way entailed a high transaction cost, and was perceived as high risk with little potential reward.

Ms Kpogo commended the beneficiaries for paying according to their respective payment plans, and urged them to keep up the spirit so that they could be trusted with bigger offers under the project, while other people also get the opportunity to benefit from them.

One of the beneficiaries, Mavis Pokuaa who a ready-made-goods seller praised GLOMEF for the support, confessing, 'it has helped me to expand my business', indicating that  the conditions attached to the loan was flexible and its low interest rate makes the payment very easy.