The Lambussie District Assembly has distributed some support items to 21 local groups, to boost local economic activities in the district under the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) project.
The beneficiary groups included motorcycle mechanics, dress makers, shea butter processors, guinea fowl and pig farmers.
They received items such as mechanical stools boxes, sewing machines, tables and chairs, cylinder roaters, raw sheanuts, aluminum basins and pots, guinea keets and piglets, as well as medication and feeds for guinea fowls and piglets respectively.
SOCO is a project sponsored by the World Bank and implemented by the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation, and Rural Development (MLGDRD), with the aim to improve economic activities in six regions of the north that had been hit by food insecurity, climate change, conflict and violence, particularly in the Sahel region.
The five-year project is being implemented in 48 MMDAs across six regions, namely; Oti, Upper East, Upper W
est, Northern, North East and Savannah.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr George Gerald Naluri, the Lambussie District Chief Executive said the intervention was a way of building the capacities of the groups, by empowering them to be economically independent and to help reduce poverty level in the district.
He said existing local interest groups who were into various business activities were selected and given various capacity building trainings, explaining that the distributed items were identified by these groups as those they needed to help them expand their businesses.
‘We are also putting in place measures to periodically monitor the groups to ensure that they put into good use the support given to them, as well as assess impact of these items in the growth of their businesses,’ he said.
Madam Catherine Zawi, the SOCO Livelihood Empowerment Officer for the Wa Zone in the Upper West Region, said the project was to among others, help empower the groups especially women, as 16 out of the 21
are women beneficiaries.
She said, as part of the roll out plans for the five-year project, Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) groups would be created and registered out of these groups to enable them easily access funds or loans that can help expand their businesses.
‘This SOCO project will help strengthen the groups to fight poverty, economic resilience and strengthen their unity to avoid being infiltrated or being lured by extremists’ groups to engage in acts of violence,’ she said.
She urged the beneficiary groups to use the items to help expand their businesses and take care of themselves and families.
Mr Ma-ion Festus, a member of Kukuwo and Hachakagan Guinea Fowl Farmers group, commended government and the assembly for the support, giving an assurance that the poultry farmers group would put out their best to multiply and boost their production levels in the Lambussie District.
Source: Ghana News Agency
