Swedru (C/R), Jan. 22, GNA - The International Labour Organization (ILO) through its Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP), has provided 320,000 dollars to eight districts in the Central Region to enable them to implement several economic development activities. Each district is to receive 40,000 dollars to set up an Enterprise Development Fund (EDF) to implement the ILO's Local Economic Development (LED) activities.

The aim is to create jobs in the districts for the acceleration of poverty reduction and improvement in the general wellbeing of people. The beneficiary districts are Agona West, Awutu-Senya, Mfantsiman, Twifo-Hemang-Lower-Denkyira, Effutu, Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam and Gomoa East and West.

The National Projects Coordinator of the ILO, Mr Emmanuel Baisie told journalists after the opening of a two-day capacity building workshop for district level officials on Wednesday that the fund was not a micro-finance activity.

Mr Baisie said assessment conducted by his outfit indicated that the selected districts lacked the requisite skills for the effective management of funds and that the level of deficiencies could undermine the efficient and transparent utilization of the funds. The workshop, he said, was therefore aimed at strengthening the capacity of the officials to enable them manage the fund well and to assist small business associations to build their capacity. Mr Baisie said the fund could also be used to set up a credit union or serve as leverage for sourcing other funds to grow small scale businesses and urged the participants to ensure that they worked hard to achieve the objective for which the fund was set up.

Mr Francis Kwame Odei, barrister/solicitor, in a presentation during the workshop, said the ultimate purpose of the fund was to promote local economic development in the beneficiary districts. He hoped that the target group of the DWCP, being mainly women, the youth and the disabled would benefit fully from the operations of the fund.

He advised the participants to assess all activities to be funded properly to ensure value for money and sustainability of the projects. 22 Jan 10