Ghana will walk with you Zimbabwe -John Mahama

Accra, May 7, GNA- The Government would offer all the necessary support to Zimbabwe to politically stabilize for economic prosperity and freedom to all its citizens, Vice President John Dramani Mahama has pledged. "Ghana as the first country in sub-saharan Africa to gain independence from our colonial masters also offered assistance to other African countries including Zimbabwe and in the same vain we shall do our best to ensure that Zimbabwe regained the political image that she created for herself in the past decades."

Vice President Mahama made this pledge when a 13-member women empowerment group from Zimbabwe paid him a courtesy call in his office as part of their week-long official visit to Ghana. The women who also visited Makola Market, GRATIS FOUNDATION and Parliament are in the country to learn and adopt some of the women empowerment programmes that Ghana had pursued over the years. They are also to understudy Ghana's Parliament, the role of women in the socio-economic development of the country and how such policies could be replicated in their country on their return. The Vice President told the delegation that government had over the years designed various loan schemes for women because of their loyalty in repayment, thereby making loan recovery among them easier than their men counterparts.

"While men sometimes commit some of their loans to the payments of school fees of relatives among other issues, women are always meticulous and ready to pay back all their loans on time."

He called on politicians in Zimbabwe to tolerate each other for the stability and peace of the country and shelve their political colours from issues that could unite them with inherent development and prosperity. Madam Thokozani Khupe, a Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and leader of the delegation, said they were satisfied with the manner in which Banks and other financial institutions were willingly releasing loans to women to undertake income generating activities and on their arrival would impress upon those institutions in their country to support women programmes. She stated that Ghana was one of the best in the African continent, not because of her democratic credentials, but because of the economic stability it had gained over the years and promised to encourage other sectors in the country to visit Ghana to study programmes for their development in Zimbabwe.

Also at the Castle on Friday were Actors and Actresses who presented their trophies they won recently at the recently held Movie Academy Awards in Nigeria to him at his office.

Miss Judith Kuwornu, leader of the delegation, said Ghana won a total of eight awards, six at the category level and two other special awards and called for support to enable them to win more laurels in the coming years. The Vice President said under the Private Sector Development phase II programme of government, Creative Industry would be given special attention to adequately cater for the artistes and create numerous jobs for people to unearth their talents. 07 May 10