The Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM), a non-governmental organisation in partnership with ActionAid Ghana, has trained women groups on agribusiness management in two districts in the Upper East Region. The women groups, numbering 334 and mostly petty traders, farmers and shea butter processors, drawn from six communities in the districts, were equipped on record-keeping, profit and loss determination, as well as marketing. It also offered a platform for men who participated in the training to learn about the best ways to handle their businesses. The communities included Sakoti, Zanlerigu, and Gane-Asonge of the Nabdam District and Baare, Balungu, and Sakpal-Tengre in the Talensi District. The training was aimed at enhancing their capacities in record-keeping techniques to enable them to track their businesses, reach new customers and make desirable profits. With technical support from the Business Advisory Centres of the Ghana Enterprise Agency in the two districts, the women were also taken through a practical demonstration on how to sustain and expand their businesses through proper packaging and promotion of their products. Ms Nancy Awinbisa Amiziah, a Project Officer at WOM, said the management of a business went beyond making daily sales, to the ability of keeping records, tracking the gains and losses of the business, marketing the products and locating an ideal market for the products. This, she noted, was essential in sustaining and growing businesses, and it was important the women were given technical support to improve their businesses to enable them to support their families financially. To track the progress of this, Ms Amiziah said ‘we are going to track the success of this through our daily interaction with the women by constantly reminding them to incorporate the skills learned into their businesses.? ‘So that in a month’s time, we can track the short-term impact, and in a year’s time we will be able to get success stories coming from them using this knowledge that we have impacted on them’ she added. Mr Michael Azubire, the Head of the Nabdam District Business Advisory Centre of the Ghana Enterprise Agency, urged the women to take their record-keeping seriously to enable them to track their debtors and the progress of their businesses. Mrs Bamohimah Tibil, a participant, expressed her joy over the skills acquired and expressed gratitude to the organisations for the initiative, adding that it was an eye-opener for her and her colleagues. She said the workshop had exposed them to many things that they did not know about, and it had now even confirmed why they had problems with their customers. ‘It is because we usually do not record items purchased on credit, and whenever it came to payment, we were always having problems. I think going forward it is important for us to know our debtors and how much they owe us by taking records,’ she added. Mr Kofi Gana, a male participant, said the training had equipped him with the requisite knowledge and skills to reposition his business to target the appropriate customers and make profit to sustain and grow the business.

Source: Ghana News Agency