RURAL ENTERPRISES PROJECT UP-SCALED (PAGE 22, NOV 9, 2010)

THE Ministry of Trade and Industry has decided to up-scale the Rural Enterprises Project (REP) to a National Rural Enterprises Programme (NREP) to cover all districts in the country and support job creation nationwide.
This is part of the government’s development effort to create wealth and reduce poverty in rural areas.
  The Ministry believes that the implementation of a National Rural Enterprises Programme will reinforce the wider national strategy of empowering the rural poor with skills and other productive assets to develop and grow their businesses and further strengthen the private sector.
The up-scaling of the project followed an interim independent evaluation, which was carried out in July, this year and whose findings were positive. Consequently, a preliminary design mission of the proposed programme was set up, which completed its assignment and submitted its initial report to the Ministry.
A Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mahama Ayariga, who announced this in Sunyani, said by January, 2012, the change of the project to a programme status would be officially launched.
    He was addressing the 2010 annual review workshop of the REP, which was attended by District Chief Executives, District Co-ordinating Directors, staff of the project and other stakeholders from the participating districts of the project.
    The REP was jointly financed by the government, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to provide a critical mass support for the micro enterprise sector in Ghana.
According to the Deputy Minister, the President of IFAD, Dr Kanayo Felix Nwanze, assured the ministry on his recent visit to the country that IFAD could contribute funding to up-scale the programme to cover all rural districts in Ghana, made up of 66 existing participating districts and 95 additional ones.
He stressed that the objective was to spread the benefits of skills development, technology promotion and transfer, rural financial services, job creation and poverty reduction to all districts in the country.
He said that would involve among others, the establishment of sustainable structures for business promotion, including Business Advisory Centres (BACs) and Rural Technology Facilities nation-wide.
Mr Ayariga stated that the expansion of the programme nationwide fitted into the wider national strategy of establishing an institutional framework for the promotion of micro and small scale enterprises.
   He said that had come about due to lack of co-ordination and effective linkages of various programmes on medium and small enterprises’ promotion at the district, regional and national level, adding that there was an avoidable gap that needed to be addressed for better synergy.
  It was the expectation of the Deputy Minister that the institutional structure of the NREP that would cover all rural districts in the country would put in place an appropriate institutional framework that would effectively involve and co-ordinate the activities of all stakeholders at the district, regional and national levels, to enable them to work in harmony with the sustained development and growth of micro and small scale enterprises in the long term.
The Project Co-ordinator, Mr Kwasi Atta-Antwi, disclosed that since its inception in 2003, the project had reached over 196,000 persons, including 110,000 women, who formed 56 per cent, with various project services.
    He said more than 89,000 persons out of the number were trained in various community-based skills trades, small business management, improved production processes, occupational safety and environmental management, banking culture and others.
     Mr Atta-Antwi said in the area of rural financial services, the participating banks had disbursed GHC 1.7 million credit funds to support over 4,350 micro and small enterprises of which 58 per cent were female managed enterprises.
He added that the implementation of the project was scheduled to end in June, 2011 in accordance with the project design.
   The Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Eric Opoku, stated that the REP was relevant since it had increased rural productivity, employment and income, thereby reducing poverty.
He said the project had the potential to contribute significantly towards the transformation of the rural economy of the country.