Breman Asikuma (C/R), Nov. 20, GNA - The Rural Enterprise Project has held a one-day stakeholders' conference on Micro and Small Scale Enterprise (MSE) promotion at Breman Asikuma to coordinate its development and growth.

About 60 traders, bankers and managers of small-scale enterprise from Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam and Mfantseman districts attended.

In an address read for him at the conference, Mr Kwasi Attah-Antwi, Project Coordinator, said the other objective of the conference was to forge effective stakeholder networking in the MSE. He said since the inception of the Project in 2003, it has reached out to more than 66,422 persons, including 22,887 women, with various project services.

Mr Attah-Antwi said 34,000 people were trained in various community-based skills, small business management, improved production process, occupational safety and environmental management, banking culture and marketing.

"In the area of rural financial services, the participating banks have disbursed 6.3 billion cedis credit funds to support over 2,300 micro and small enterprises, of which 58 per cent were businesses managed by women."

Mr Richard Borteng, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the Rural Enterprises Project II, urged participants to forge effective partnership with the District Assemblies to promote the MSEs at the district level.