In a bid to boost local economic growth in the Lawra Municipality, the Assembly has been working through the Business Advisory Center (BAC) to support the development of micro and small enterprises.
The BAC support which is also aimed at promoting entrepreneurship has since 2017 trained 541 people in the Lawra Municipality to improve their ability to manage their business ventures.
The MCE for Lawra, Martin Domotiere Bomba-Ire announced this when his Municipality took its turn at Meet the Press series in Lawra.
Mr. Bomba-Ire said the 541 beneficiaries who were made up 342 females and 199 males received training in technology improvement and packaging in soya beans, groundnut, fish as well as soap processing among others.
The collaboration between the Lawra Municipal Assembly and Business Advisory Center hinges on conviction that micro and small businesses have the potential to create jobs for many young people who have completed their tertiary education or have technical and vocational qualifications.
The MCE, Mr. Bomba-Ire told the gathering that the Assembly equally facilitated some business units and farmer based organizations to access credit from the Rural Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) to the tune 783 thousand, 520 Ghana Cedis (GH₵ 783,520) to 762 beneficiaries of which 544 are females with the rest 218 being males.
MASLOC also disbursed 323 thousand Ghana Cedis to women groups in the over the period under review.
According to the MCE, government through the Rural Enterprises Programme this year constructed a soya bean processing center at Eremon Kalkatuo.
Construction works are complete and machines are yet to be installed to make the facility ready for use.
Mr. Bomba-Ire added that the Assembly also connected a Women Group Rice Processing Center at Babile to electricity to facilitate its use by the people.
To also support local economic development as well as boost revenue mobilization, the Assembly has constructed a one-storey 10-unit lockable stores around the Lawra-Nandom road, 10-unit lockable stores at Babile Market and expanded the goat market in the Babile Market under the District Development Facility (DDF).
It was also made known at the session that the Assembly and the BAC equally facilitated the support of Farmer Based Cooperatives by the Korean International Cooperation Agency ( KOICA) with fixed assets.
Two of the groups were supported with two tricycles and the other two, had two grinding mills.
The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister Amidu Chinnia Issahaku called for a change in the curriculum to train and re-orient our graduates for a private sector.
“The graduates that we produce today in the various tertiary institutions, they are not able to meet [surmount] the challenges that confront the country. We are in a country where our graduates expect to be employed by the public sector, but all of you agree with me that the changing world demands that majority of our citizens be employed in the private sector. That is what happens in America, that is what happens in China and that is what happens all over the world. He stated.
Adding that: “The public sector cannot employ even up to 30 % of the citizens. Unfortunately, our system of education do not position our students to be self-employed and so as a country, we must make a decisive to reform our curriculum so that we can prepare students and graduates that can find employment on their own in the private sector.”
Story by Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo
