Poverty Alleviation Fund goes into YEP

Wa, Sept. 29, GNA - Government has channelled allocations for the Poverty Alleviation Funds into the Youth Employment Programme because of its abuse by beneficiaries.

Mr Mac Adams Banda, Wa Municipal Chief Executive who announced this said only 24 million cedis out of 750 million cedis granted as loans from the Fund within the Wa Municipality had been paid. He was speaking on the topic "Role of the Wa Municipal Assembly in uplifting small scale enterprises within the Municipality" at the inauguration of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Support Institutions Network (SSINET) in Upper West Region at Wa on Thursday. The Network, the first to be established in the country, was initiated by the Business Advisory Centre of NBSSI in the region and had representatives from Government institutions, Non-Governmental organizations and institutions involved in the development of small scale businesses.

Mr Banda announced that the Mother and Child Development Centre established by Mrs Theresa Kufuor, First Lady, in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Children's Affaires were constructing two agro-processing facilities at Chegli and Wali-Sombo at an estimated cost of 1.3 billion cedis.

He gave the assurance that the assembly would not shirk its responsibility to facilitate activities of the network to transform businesses within the municipality to generate employment and create wealth.

Mr George Hikah Benson, Deputy Upper West Regional Minister inaugurating the network asked the personnel to promote strong entrepreneurship and investment drive among entrepreneurs and the youth in the region.

He said the region needed a progressive and aggressive business attitude to take advantage of the opportunities under the Micro-Credit and Small Loan Scheme.

Mr Gabriel Fiatui, Head of Business Advisory Centre of NBSSI in the region, said SSINET would establish entrepreneurial clubs in schools to whip up business interest among the youth.

He noted that the region lacked successful entrepreneurs and large scale enterprises because of the absence of achievers who could use motivational speeches to enable the people take up the challenge as entrepreneurs.