WORKSHOP ON MICRO-FINANCE HELD IN HO (PAGE 38)

Story: Tim Dzamboe, Ho

MEMBERS of the Ghana Co-operative Council (GCC) have been called upon to adopt prudent management practices to enable them to stay in business.
A board member of the GCC, Nana Afena Dantsi, aka William Buckman, who made the call, said the adoption of such practices would also facilitate the ability of the members to access the Micro-Finance and Small Loan Scheme (MASLOC) to enable them to become more viable in the fast-growing economy.
Nana Dantsi, who is also the Executive Director of the Pioneer Co-operative Cold Store Complex in Tema, was addressing separate training workshops on sensitisation to micro-finance for 200 participants in Ho and Sogakope.
He said the government was doing its best and so it remained with the co-operative groups to take advantage of government policies to expand their businesses.
He said many co-operatives were not able to access loans and credit from the financial institutions because of the complex terms the institutions offered.
Nana Dantsi said the establishment of the micro-finance and credit scheme, therefore, offered hope for co-operatives and other individuals who wanted to venture into business.
He expressed the hope that the new regime on micro-finance in the country would help to transform the lives of millions of people, including women, to come out of poverty.
He said recent international reviews and evaluations of the performance of co-operatives indicated that the co-operative form of private enterprise was very significant in many national economies on certain conditions.
According to him, co-operatives offered ideal and sustainable institutional structures that could help to improve the delivery of goods and services to targeted groups and poverty alleviation programmes.
Nana Dantsi said in Ghana, apart from providing employment for the people, co-operatives contributed to the revenue base of the state.
The Project Manager of the GCC, Mr Samuel Addo-Newton, advised participants to abide by the principles of group dynamics and the mobilisation of savings, adding that it was a wrong business culture to incorporate family expenditure into business accounts.