Amansie East assembly to help artisans with start-up tools

Bekwai (Ash), July 20, GNA - The Amansie East District Assembly through the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) will grant a 60 million-cedi loan and sewing machines to 33 artisans to enable them start their own businesses.

Mr Richard Aboagye, the District Chief Executive, disclosed this at the graduation of 33 apprentices, who successfully underwent a three-year training in dressmaking, facilitated by the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) at Bekwai. He said the recipients of the loan, which was a revolving capital, had already been trained in financial management and sound business practices by the Rural Enterprise Project (REP) to ensure prompt repayment.

The DCE said youth employment has been the focus of the assembly and that it had opened its doors through the REP to train young people, who were willing to acquire employable skills.

Miss Mildred Aboagye Mintah, National Secretary of the Ghana Tailors and Dressmakers Association, in a welcome address, thanked the government, departments and agencies for the valuable assistance given the association, which had gone through challenging times to evolve to its present level after 35 years of its formation.

She said through series of educational programmes, the association had move out of the era, when dressmaking was perceived as the preserve for school dropouts and called on members to take advantage of the opportunities available to enable them improves upon their skills. "There are so many avenues in the trade that can make one enter the polytechnics to pursue fashion designing", he added. Nana Komfo Ataa II, a fetish priestess at Pampaso, near Bekwai, who presided, urged the graduates to emerge as a new crop of dressmakers, who would work tirelessly to debunk certain negative public perception about dressmakers.