The President of the Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations (GUTA), Dr Joseph Obeng, has welcomed the government’s plan to establish a Women’s Bank, describing it as a major step toward addressing long-standing financial barriers faced by many women entrepreneurs.
Speaking to the media, Dr Obeng said the initiative would provide relief to thousands of market women who rely heavily on microfinance, SUSU systems and other informal credit sources that charge high and often exploitative interest rates.
“Among them is the intended establishment of the Women’s Bank, in fact, it’s coming to solve a problem for us seriously. Our women are very vulnerable and then they normally do not do business with the mainstream banks and they do their business with the microfinance and the susu systems and all manner of credits that they secure at a very assortive price that make them wallow in poverty because they can actually not even pay the interest and all that.”
While praising government for the intervention, Dr Obeng also appealed for similar support for vulnerable men who equally struggle to access affordable financing.
”Government have done well but as we are thanking government for that, we also want to appeal to government that some of our men are as weak as the women. We should find a way to also tie them up somewhere and then those people who are vulnerable wants to also get something and so we thank government for that.”
According to him, extending financial inclusion to all vulnerable groups would help reduce poverty, strengthen small businesses and promote balanced economic growth.
Source: Elvisanokyenews.com
