The Shea Network Ghana (SNG), an NGO, in partnership with Tunteiya Women’s Association has organised a selection of suppliers for a trade fair aimed at assisting rural entrepreneurs in acquiring essential items for their businesses.
The day’s event, held in Tamale, was an avenue to connect the entrepreneurs, who were beneficiaries of the Women’s Economic Advancement for Collective Transformation (WEACT) project, to suppliers.
It formed part of the Gender Responsive Skills Development Training activities, which is one of the four fundamental areas under the WEACT project.
The trade fair united 20 exhibitors of distinct items, including cooking wares and milling machines with 90 female entrepreneurs from project areas across the Northern and Savannah Regions.
The entrepreneurs shopped for necessary items for their businesses with the expenses covered by SNG and its partners.
Miss Ubaidatu Iddrisu, WEACT Project Manager at SNG, speaking at the event, said the initiative sought to empower women financially
through improving their equality drives, and literacy, as well as boost the cocoa and shea value chains entrepreneurship.
She said the trade fair created networks between the suppliers and entrepreneurs with related business plans to deepen their knowledge of products and services as it provided mentorship for prospective women entrepreneurs.
She noted that WEACT project, which is supervised by OXFAM with funding from Global Affairs Canada, sought to increase access to innovative and viable gender-responsive business models as well as enhance equal access to productive resources for women.
Alhaji Thomas Kofi Pang, Coordinator at Tunteiya Women’s Association, said organising the trade fair for rural women was a realisation of the need to invest in rural entrepreneurship, stating that there was the need to do more of such exhibitions at the community level.
He said prior to the exhibition, there was an assessment of the women’s need to appropriately select exhibitors that suited their needs.
Madam Fati Alh
assan, Gender Officer for the WEACT Project at OXFAM, said the project had engaged women in rural areas in the last couple of years, targeted at boosting entrepreneurship among them.
She said, ‘At OXFAM, we believe that poverty can be ended. So, we take steps in that direction.’
A similar event will be held in Bolgatanga on December 7 for 60 women from selected districts in the Upper West and Upper East Regions.
Source: Ghana News Agency
