ABOUT 10,000 women in the Sissala East and West districts in the Upper West Region have formed the Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) and mobilised GH¢90,000 through a micro finance savings model code-named Accumulating Savings and Credit Associations (ASCA).
Plan Ghana, a child centred international non-governmental organisation, assembled the people and provided them with technical advice. Members of the association are made up of poor and vulnerable women who are engaged in agricultural production, processing and marketing. Others are also into petty trading and medium-scale trading.
The VSLA model is designed to be more flexible, and members take loans at an interest rate and repay at a period determined by the members.
Each of the VSLA has an average membership of 25, who meet regularly on a weekly basis during which they contribute and save money.
According to the Tumu Area Programme Manager of Plan Ghana, Mr Richard Boadu, beneficiaries repay the loans through the straight line method, which involves splitting the interest over an initial period by paying the principal at the end and they receive the loan according to their contributions to the savings.
Speaking at the second graduation of the second batch of members of the VSLA in Tumu, Mr Boadu, who quoted from the 2005 Ghana Human Development report, explained that 30 per cent of people did not have access to any form of financial services, which is a serious drawback to rural growth.
Based on this, he said, Plan Ghana through its microfinance model introduced the VSLA in the Sissala West District in 2007 to whip up membership drive, improve on the savings habit among the people to enable them to mobilise funds to start new businesses in their respective communities.
“As of October 2009, a number of communities in the Sissala West and Sissala East districts with over 10,000 members from 400 associations are benefiting directly from the Plan Ghana VSLA scheme. Out of the total membership, 87 per cent are women. Similarly, 80 VSLA groups from 15 communities graduated in the year 2008 but today we are celebrating the graduation of 313 associations from 40 communities” Mr Boadu indicated.
He added that Plan Ghana had also trained about 45 village agents to support members of the associations and their groups in their work and also to work to form more groups, pointing out that “painstaking efforts had been made to build the capacities of the members of the associations”.
He said recent reports from some communities indicated that more women had been empowered financially under the scheme.
He commended the women who availed themselves to kick start the VSLA, and that Plan Ghana sought to link the VSLA groups to recognised financial institutions for more grants to train more groups under the scheme.
The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Caesar Kale, expressed appreciation to Plan Ghana for the initiative and was optimistic that the scheme would bring great relief to people since it would provide them with an immediate access to credit.
“As a sustainable financial service it would promote businesses and also pave the way for people to access loans timely and at affordable interest” he said.
Mr Kale further urged members of the associations to spread the good news to entice more members to their fold to sustain the scheme.
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