Friends of the Nation (FoN) a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) has organised a day's training programme for market women in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality of the Western Region on social accountability.

It brought together market women from Tarkwa, Nsuaem and Simpa.

The Natural Resources Governance Coordinator, Mr. Solomon Kusi Ampofo said the focus of the training was to expose the participants to good governance, social accountability, the functions of the revenue department and how they could be integrated into the decision making body.

He said they had a resource person from the municipal assembly who explained in details the duties of the revenue department, the support they offered to market women and revenue generated from markets within the municipality since 2016 till date.

"In as much as the assembly generates revenue from people you must be able to tell them how much you have collected and how it is used" he explained. He said this would deepen transparency and accountability, adding that, it would encourage market women to contribute more to revenue generation. Mr Amponsah said " if they don't know how much is been collected and how the funds are utilised then it creates mistrust between the market women and the assembly".

Most of the participants who interacted with the Ghana News Agency after the training, commended FoN and said they were empowered to engage effectively with the assembly on how they could address challenges affecting them in their various markets.

This is part of star Ghana foundation supported programme, which seeks to improve on the living conditions of market women and person's with disabilities in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality.

It also intends to enhance their knowledge in local governance processes and the mineral development fund and to create space for the market women to interact with officials of the municipal assembly.