Persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the Bolgatanta Municipality have been trained in financial management and money literacy to help them manage their businesses well. About 80 participants made up of persons with albinism, physically challenged and hearing impaired who are into various types of trade benefitted from the business management skills training.

Mr Joseph Tiewuh, a staff of the National Bureau of Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) who facilitated the training, said many businesses had collapsed because their managers failed to put in measures to track performance of their transactions.

He noted that equipping the beneficiaries with business management skills would help them to take control of their activities and also manage their funds efficiently.

Ms Mercy Pwadura, the Municipal Director of the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development, indicated that the participants some of whom had benefitted from the Disability Fund, were taken through regular programmes to ensure that they were self-reliant and managed their businesses well.

She expressed the hope that the training and funds the participants received would help them to improve on their businesses and reduce the tendency of many of them begging for alms along the streets in the Municipality. She gave the assurance to other PWDs who had not accessed loan facilities from the Fund to exercise restraint as their applications were being processed to ensure that the Department got proper records of all beneficiaries before disbursing monies.

Mrs Pwadura announced that PWDs who were students had received their bursaries this year to pay for their transportation and upkeep. They included 150 students from the Gbeogo School for the Deaf in the Talensi District, St John’s Integrated School in Tono, St Charles Integrated School in the Bolgatanga Municipality and Wa School for the Deaf.

Mr Joseph Amiyuure, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Bolgatanga, urged the beneficiaries not to see their disability as a misfortune and advised them to go the extra mile to achieve their goals. “To be physically challenged is not inability," he stated, and entreated them to utilize the knowledge they had acquired to improve their businesses to be self-reliant.

Mr Amiyuure assured them of the Assembly’s commitment to ensuring that the two percent allocations of the Common Fund for Persons with Disabilities, was disbursed appropriately. "For my Assembly, the two percent that is meant for the physically challenged, I will make sure that those monies are there for the committee to access for applicants," he added.

Madam Lariba Azirika, a 34-year-old basket weaver from Sirigu, who benefitted from the training, expressed gratitude to the organisers and said she would apply what she had learnt in her business.