Accra, Nov. 7, GNA 96 Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs on Tuesday said women's access to skill training and re-training was an important tool that could enhance their economic activities and empowerment.

She said women in the informal sector had less access to formal channels that provided comprehensive skills training because they were often ignorant of such programmes.

Hajia Mahama was speaking at a training workshop organized by the Ministry to equip market women on business skills and financial management to enable them get access to credit to develop their businesses.

The workshop was organized to provide the necessary basic training that would render the market women eligible to access the Micro Credit Fund under the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy Two and the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).

Hajia Mahama said that women in economic activities were faced with many challenges including the access to credit facilities because they lack business and marketing skills that denied them access to formal credit.

She said most market women might lack the basic educational qualification for such skill training and were therefore cut off from benefiting from such programmes. She was of the hope that the participants after the training would be able to manage their businesses effectively to "create wealth and thereby reduce poverty among women".