INTRODUCTION OF E-ZWICH WILL POSITIVELY AFFECT ECONOMY (PAGE 36)

THE National Treasurer of the Credit Unions Association (CUA) Ghana Limited, Mr Stephen Dzorkpata, has stated that the introduction of the e-zwich into the banking system will bring unprecedented changes into the economy.
He has, therefore, urged CUA as a micro finance business entity to revise and sharpen its strategies and make them very focused, proactive, dynamic and aggressive for the betterment of the future of members, especially raising the ego of the poor and the vulnerable.
Mr Dzorpkata, who is also chairman of the Volta chapter of CUA, said this when he addressed executives of the various credit unions in the Volta Region at the launch of home savings box, a new product of CUA, at Ho.
He said since society was very dynamic and things were changing very fast, the prime business was to teach members and others to save and take loans at reasonable and flexible interest rates, hence the savings box.
Launching the new product, the General Manager of CUA, Mr Emmanuel Oduro Darko, said CUA had the most extensive coverage among micro finance institutions in the country.
He said a nation could not develop until it had learnt to build from its own resources and grown from there.
The new product, Mr Darko said, was designed to establish a reliable and convenient home banking system for the poor to overcome challenges associated with savings.
He said the home savings box would create an opportunity for smaller amounts to be saved by many people who could not access similar services from the formal financial sector, and to deepen the habit of savings among members and non-members.
Mr Darko said regular and long-term savings were a way of building confidence and financial security among the poor and provide financial services that would be tailored to meet their needs and eventually graduate them from the poorest of the poor to the poor and then to middle-income group.
According to Mr Darko, the credit union movement had registered a steady growth in assets, savings, membership and loan service, adding that it had a clear and insistent desire to reduce poverty.
He announced that CUA had placed an order for 14,500 pieces of the micro savings boxes at a cost of GH¢1,6000,000 with funding from the Micro Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) scheme and the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).
Mr Darko said each subscriber to the box would have to enter into a strong covenant with the box to ensure good savings.
The immediate past Ho Municipal Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Francis Korwu, said the launch of the new product was a sign of growth and a movement into a historic era.
He said he had identified himself with the concept of credit union because it was beneficial to individuals and the nation at large, adding that those who belonged to credit union believed in unity.
The Ho Municipal Co-operative Officer, Ms Beauty Bansah, said the product was a good one, which gave hope to families who were facing problems due to negligence of the youth and children.