Chiraa (B/A), June 27, GNA - Barima Afari Minta 11, Chief of Chiraa in Brong Ahafo, has urged his people to embrace the credit union and other opportunities created by the government to help improve their living standards.

He advised them to attach great importance and attention to whatever economic venture they were engaged in, whether big or small, so that through the little savings that they made they could achieve their aims.

The Chief, who presided at the inauguration of Chiraa Community Co-operative Credit Union, said the area abounded in natural resources and it was imperative for the people to initiate and pursue objectives to speed up the development of the community.

Barima Afari Minta said the principle of inculcating the habit of savings in the people was a way of making them learn how to manage their limited financial resources and creating wealth as well. He pledged the support of the traditional authorities to enable the union to thrive to help make life better for the people. The Chief promised to help in an education drive to get more of the people to join the union in support of the government's policy at reducing poverty especially those in the rural areas.

Mr. Joseph Nicholas Afful, regional manager of Brong Ahafo Chapter of the Co-operative Credit Unions Association of Ghana (CUA), said the Chiraa union hit a net surplus of 1,524,903 cedis as at June 2006 and by the end of May this year the figure had increased by 71 per cent. He explained that the mobilization of local savings, as through the credit unions, "is another way of bringing back excess liquidity kept in homes into the financial system for local investment purposes." Mr. Emmanuel Oduro Darko, the General Manager of CUA, appealed to the people to join the union to help reduce the level of poverty, saying "we can solve our poverty on our own through the little savings we make".

Mr. Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Regional Minister, urged the management of the union to intensify the educational drive through a house-to-house approach in order to rope in more members. He advised them to strengthen internal controls to check against any financial malpractices.