Gomoa Rural Bank supports fishmongers with loans

Apam (C/R), Feb 16, GNA - Gomoa Rural Bank in Apam has given a loan of GH¢25,000 to 25 fishmongers at Apam to support their businesses. The District Chief Executive for Gomoa West, Mr Teophilus Aidoo-Mensah who negotiated for the loan on behalf of the fishmongers, said he was assisted by the District Cooperative Officer in training and organizing the group into a cooperative society to enable them to manage the loan. He said he had asked the Cooperative Officer to extend formation of th= e societies to other fishing communities to enable more people to benefit fro= m the loan package.

He said the Millennium Development Authority (MIDA) had also supported farmers with loans and inputs. Mr Aidoo-Mensah commended Member of Parliament for Gomoa West, Mr Francis Kojo Arthur, for supporting a group of farmers with loans. He however cautioned beneficiaries of these loans to pay back promptly to enable the programme to be sustained. "The loans are not gifts, especially those arranged for by the MP"= , the DCE stressed and added that they had to pay them back for others to benefit= .. Mr Aidoo-Mensah said last year the youth were introduced to block farming and the District Directorate of Agriculture arranged for a tractor from Accra to plough the land for them with the other inputs provided by th= e Agriculture Directorate.

He said initially many of the youth were not interested in the block farming and the few that went into it benefited. Mr Aidoo-Mensah appealed to chiefs and land owners to release land on reasonable terms for the programme as a lot of the youth had now expressed the desire to go into it.

He said some of the youth had expressed the desire to do fishing and they were being grouped into co-operative society for inputs to be secured for them. Mr Aidoo-Mensah assured areas with perennial water problem that water delivery would improve when the Treatment Plant currently under constructio= n at Gomoa Antseadze was completed. He said as a short term measure, the Assembly had acquired a water tanker to supply water to the people and the tanker service would start as soon as enough poly tanks had been acquired for the communities facing acut= e water problem.

The DCE said he had received a report from Aqua Vitens Rand Limited that some people had damaged the six-inch distribution line around the Apam Senor High School and appealed to the people of Apam not to temper with anything belonging to the Ghana Water Company in an attempt to draw water. Mr Aidoo-Mensah appealed to the contractor who had been awarded Apam/Afransi road contract to move to site as the condition of the road was bad and creating inconvenience for the road users and the communities along the road.