Assemblies urged to assist IGA with Poverty Alleviation Fund

Kumasi, Feb. 17, GNA - An appeal has been made to district assemblies to offer more financial assistance from the poverty alleviation fund to support projects of Income Generating Activities (IGA) groups of the Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.

Mr Francis Asumadu, Ashanti Regional Co-ordinator of the NFED, who made the appeal said, it was equally important for the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs to also consider giving out loans to the IGA to expand their enterprises since the groups comprised mainly women.

Mr Asumadu made the appeal at the closing ceremony of a 10-day entrepreneurial skills development training workshop for district IGA officers organised by the NFED in Kumasi on Tuesday.

The 39 IGA district officers who attended the workshop were drawn from four regions, Ashanti, Greater-Accra, Upper East and West. It was aimed at giving the participants the requisite entrepreneurial and innovative skills to enable them to explore other avenues for credit and other financial assistance to support projects of IGA groups in their catchment areas.

Mr Asumadu explained that intervention from domestic and other sources to the IGA for their sustenance was crucial because "credit for promoting IGA ventures was quite enormous and funds from the World Bank alone cannot be sufficient".

Touching on the second phase of the national functional literacy programme, Mr Asumadu said the Ashanti region had enrolled 62,846 learners of which 72 percent are women.

In an address read for him, Mr Sampson Kwaku Boafo, Ashanti Regional Minister, said government places equal premium on adult literacy as it does to basic education.

"This is because, government appreciates that the adult is the decision maker at home and when he or she is functionally literate, it goes a long way in ensuring informed decisions about their kids", he stressed.

Mr Boafo said it was to demonstrate its practical commitment to the development of the functional literacy programme that the government set aside 52 billion cedis in this year's budget to provide instructions and other related programme activities to "our adult population".