CAMFED to train 36,000 females with financial literacy annually

The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), an NGO, is targeting 36,000 females to be trained financially in the Northern Region annually to imbibe in them financial literacy skills to equip them for business activities for a better future.

Madam Delores Dickson, Executive Director of CAMFED-Ghana said the programme which started in 2011 with funding from the MasterCard Foundation, had so far trained 622 peer educators with 67,000 modular recipients in financial literacy skills.

She said it was a comprehensive programme designed to enable young women to lead change in their societies with the objective of impacting relevant information on financial management skills in building their financial awareness.

Madam Dickson was speaking at the closing ceremony of training of trainees of 25 young women in Tamale who were trained for two weeks in personal finance, rights and choices, core business skills, advanced business skills and business planning.

She said her outfit supports girls’ education and young women to become empowered so that they become agents of change in their communities stressing that over 16,000 female students had been given scholarships in 720 schools across 30 districts.

Mr. Charles Atia, Operations Manager of CAMFED-Ghana said the financial literacy training programme was a five-year project, and that it was initiated on the backdrop that 62 percent of women in the Northern Region were financially illiterate.

He said the programme was also in line with government’s financial plans of creating financial literacy awareness among consumers to impact knowledge that would change behaviour and advised people against contracting loans without good plans for such loans.

Mr. Atia observed that if more women had money and empowered, life would generally be bearable since their empowerment would trickle down to society and their families.

Mr. Ewuntomah James Kala, Deputy Director of GES at the Tamale Metro Education Unit lauded the initiative, noting that it would help the beneficiaries plan their lives appropriately for the future saying, ‘implement what you have learnt here and not go home and forget what you have learnt’.

Some of the trainees would be selected as Core Trainers and Peer Educators and awarded certificates by Cambridge International Examinations based on the performance in an exam while others would be given grants to set up their businesses.

Miss Ruth Gariba, who benefited from CAMFED’s educational scholarship said without the NGO, she would not have been able to complete secondary education hoping that her life would be positive through opportunities of CAMFED.

Some of the female participants said the NGO and its programmes had immensely been beneficial in their lives by boosting their confidence and education.