Cape Coast, Jan. 04, GNA - Plans are far advanced for authorities of University of Cape Coast (UCC) to establish a micro financing centre to focus on micro financing and its related issues such as poverty reduction and women empowerment to help coordinate activities in that sub-sector. Reverend Professor Emmanuel Adow Obeng, Vice Chancellor of UCC in an address read on his behalf at the opening session of a two-day annual micro financing conference at UCC on Thursday noted that establishment of the centre was imperative to the sub-sector.
The conference organized by Faculty of Social Sciences of UCC on the theme "Sustaining Micro Financing in Ghana" is being attended by representatives of financial institutions including rural banks, credit unions and other stakeholders. It is expected that participants would provide broad guidelines to Government on modalities to manage the micro-credit fund and draft a template for achieving both institutional and clientele sustainability. Rev. Prof. Obeng said an advisory committee including stakeholders within and outside the University would be constituted to direct and regulate activities of the centre. The Vice-Chancellor said activities of the sub-sector although on-going, were generally uncoordinated with individuals, donors and government playing independent and virtually not making any achievement.
He said it was in this regard that UCC, in collaboration with other stakeholders decided to contextualize and institutionalize all activities within the sub sector to bring about uniformity. Rev. Prof. Obeng urged micro financing institutions to sponsor their employees to undertake training programmes at the University to help build their capacity and make them efficient and their institutions more vibrant.
Professor Gyan Baffour Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning in an address read on his behalf said Ghana could boast of diverse micro financing markets such as rural banks, credit unions and cooperative 93susu" groups all serving different market niches. He said Government had over the years introduced interventions like the poverty alleviation fund and rural enterprise project but all had not achieved the desired impact of reducing poverty due to the uncoordinated manner of their operations. Prof. Gyan Baffour said to check this anomaly Government had developed a micro financing policy to streamline operations, coordinate and harmonize activities within the sub-sector and in addition, established the Micro Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) with 50 million dollars as seed money. He said regional offices would soon be established and was optimistic MASLOC would collaborate with UCC to provide a platform for knowledge sharing and transfer. Mrs Christy Ahenkora Banya, representative of United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) commended UCC for establishing the centre and called for networking among micro financing institutions to bring about harmonization and coordination in their activities. She said this would help build a vibrant micro financing sub sector that would help in poverty eradication particularly among women in the country.
