Salaga (NR), April 26, GNA - Ms. Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry has reiterated the NDC government's commitment towards the economic transformation of the country, especially rural settlements to address poverty.

She said, "If government talks about building a better Ghana, it meant it" and that everything would be done to ensure that the rural economy was upgraded to catch-up with the rest of the country. Ms. Tetteh said this at Salaga in the East Gonja District when she led a supervisory mission of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to inspect Rural Enterprises Project (REP) projects in the district.

The REP project known as Rural Technology Facility (RTF) in the East Gonja District sought to contribute to poverty alleviation by increasing income, employment and productivity of rural people. The facility, the brain child of the previous NDC government in late 1990s and started and completed under the NPP government and was now training artisans in dress making, furniture, Batic tye and dye, soap making, blacksmithing, smock waving, pomade making and mechahnical engineering services.

Ms Tetteh said the government had started implementing useful policies intended to provide a more conducive environment for economic development and poverty alleviation.

She said making poverty history was not possible without the creation of more and better jobs in the country and that a strong economy provided everyone with jobs, helps the vulnerable in society to make a living and could support basic education and healthcare. She said self-employment also held some of the keys to poverty reduction and stressed the need for REP projects and their assistance to supplement government's efforts and strategy to reduce poverty through self and wage employment.

Ms Tetteh advised the entrepreneurs to take advantage of the REP programme to enable them to start and grow their own businesses, which would contribute to the spatial development of the country to reduce rural-urban migration.

Mr. Mohaammed Manssouri, IFAD Ghana Country Programme Manager said IFAD was committed to supporting the government to fight poverty to better the lives of the people.

Alhaji Shehu A. Kadiri, East Gonja District Coordinating Director said the implementation of the REP programme had provided training to some 108 master craft persons and some 128 persons on how to manage small businesses while 34 graduated apprentices were provided with start-up kits to start their own businesses.

He said some 1,884 people from the district also received various vocational training including shea butter production, gari processing, dress, pomade and soap making and were also trained on how to keep records on their business transaction and how to seek credit facilities to expand their businesses. Alhaji Kadiri said outcomes of other interventions included 540 clients who adopted new technologies, 312 new businesses established, 323 new jobs created and 113 clients had consistently recorded increasing sales due to the training they had from RTF. Mr. Kwasi Atta-Antwi, project coordinator of the Rural Enterprises Project said about 157 thousand clients had benefited from REP since the commencement of its second phase in 53 districts nationwide.

He said about GH¢ 1.4 million had been disbursed as credit by participating financial institutions to more than 3,300 enterprises and that the project had completed RTF for 12 districts to promote technology transfer and apprenticeship training. 26 April 09