Regional News of Saturday, 30 December 2006

Source: GNA

Pay back loans Forest Commission Head urges beneficiaries

Agona Kwanyaku (C/R), Dec. 30, GNA-The Chairman of Winneba Forest District branch of Forest Resource Commission (FRC), Nana Dr. Adjoku Abora VII, has advised people living in selected forest zones who have benefited from a special Micro-Credit Scheme established by the Governmernt a few years back, to pay back the money for others to benefit.

Nana Adjoku gave the advice at a meeting with a group of benefactors of the scheme at Agona Kwanyaku.

The loans were meant specifically to assist people living around Ahirasu Numbers One and Two, Akrabong, Obotomfo, and Abasomba forest areas to undertake viable economic ventures for a living, rather than relying on forest resources for their livelihood. Nana Dr. Adjoku, who is also a director of Ghana Atomic Energy (GAE), reminded beneficiaries of the facility that the money was a revolving fund and everything possible should be done to sustain it. He said, many people who benefited from the scheme have been offered requisite training in grass-cuter, livestock raring, pig raring, snail farming and beekeeping businesses.

Nana Adjoku charged all group leaders of the Forest Resource Commission in Agona, Awutu-Effutu=3DSeny and the Gomoa Districts to intensify moves to retrieve the loans, adding that such facilities were not gift.

He said that their failure to repay the money would affect members of their respective communities yet to access loans from the facility.