Cultivate savings habit-entreprenuers urged

Female entreprenuers in the country have been encouraged to cultivate a proper saving culture by saving in banks as it is one of the best insurance for their finances.

By doing so, it would help them accumulate more funds to expand their businesses and invest in more enterprising ventures. A lecturer at the Koforidua Polytechnic in the Eastern region, Mr Samuel Antwi said enterprising women required appropriate banking services to escape from the low investment–low production–low returns cycle.

“Ghanaian women are known to have a strong entrepreneurial spirit and more than men reinvest the money they make into their families and communities. It is important that they save well their decent profits and plough it back into their business to be able to earn more in the future,” he said at a skill development training programme in Koforidua.

The training was organised by the Christian Mothers Association of Ghana (CMA), a non-governmental Christian women organisation in the Catholic Church which is committed to empowering women, with sponsorship from the Skill Development Fund (SDF), being managed by the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET).

Mr Antwi urged the women not to allow household duties, illiteracy and sometimes intimidation by some bank staff to deter them from saving in the banks.

In all, the CMA would train 90 of its members from zones; northern, middle and southern zone in prudent financial management, small scale business management, record keeping, banking culture and how to access micro credit.

The first 30 members from the southern zone, comprising, Accra, Cape Coast, Koforidua, Keta / Akatsi, Jasikan and Sekondi-Takoradi Arch-Dioceses, and Donkorkrom Vicariate are being trained in entrepreneurial and management skills in Koforidua, Eastern region.

The two-week training from July 8 to 19, 2013 is on the theme, “Provision of Small Medium Enterprises Development Support Services Leading to Economic Empowerment.”

The Executive Secretary of the CMA, Mother Elizabeth Addai Boateng told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS, the CMA sought funding to refocus on skill training following a need assessment from the diocesan presidents asking the national secretariat to revisit its skill training programme.

The objective she said was to help mothers establish their businesses and run them well. Many of them often take loans to run their businesses and are unable to wean themselves off the loans. But we feel that at a point they should be able to run their businesses with their own money so we thought that we will give them this training to empower them to be able to run their businesses well.

“We expect that through the training they would learn to know their customers, study their needs and how to deal with them and their debtors so they will not run into loses,” she said.
The Business Department of the Bolgatanga Polytechnic designed the eight modules for the prudent financial management training
GB


Fact sheet
- The Christian Mothers Association operates in 18 out of the 19 Dioceses in Ghana and one vicariate
-It has a current active membership of about 35,000 women 
- Its core activities include the provision of civic, health, formal and non formal education and teaching of social and moral values, and also supporting the income generating activities of women
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