CREDIT UNION SETS UP SCHEME FOR BUSINESS OPERATORS (PAGE 23)

THE Wa Community Co-operative Credit Union has established a scheme for its small-scale business operators in the Wa Municipality in the Upper West Region.
The scheme, which currently operates with 47 groups, comprising 1,104 individuals members across the union’s operational area, has so far provided GH¢80,905 to the beneficiaries.
Additionally, the groups, through the scheme, have so far saved GH¢15,913.40.
The Chairman of the union, Mr Jacob Dourinaa, announced this at the annual general meeting of the union in Wa over the weekend.
According to him, despite the remarkable performance of the union, there were still some challenges.
“Some members are in the habit of taking loans, which for unknown reasons, they fail to pay. This causes the union to lose so much needed income,” Mr Dourinaa added.
He said those challenges hindered the viability of the union as it loses income.
Mr Dourinaa attributed those challenges to inadequate knowledge on the principles and operations of the credit union concept and, therefore, called for more education.
“The loans committee has to work well by appraising every loan application to ensure that good loans are granted,” he advised.
He urged the loan officer to intensify his preliminary investigation into all loan applications and further warned that loan defaulters would soon be arranged before the law courts.
Commenting on the attitudes of the people of the three northern regions, Dr Benjamin Kumbuor, the Deputy Minister of Health, noted that, “Most people from these regions are themselves obstacles to the development of the three regions.”
He said the time had come for the people to take their destiny into their own hands, since they could not blame anyone for the lack of development in those areas.
Dr Kumbuor further advised the people of the three regions to be wary of all sorts of opinion leaders who paraded around claiming to be agents of development, because most of those leaders were rather a hindrance to the development of the three regions.