Ho, Dec. 2, GNA- The Council of Indigenous Business Associations (CIBA) has introduced four Social Protection Schemes which are expected to commence next year.

They are Social Security, Life and Disability, Health Insurance and Micro-Financing, which are estimated to yield 60 billion cedis each from 500,000 members, with member contributing 10,000 cedis a month as premium to each scheme.

Mr Ralph Ameyaw, Executive Secretary of the Association announced this at the launching of the Schemes in Ho on Tuesday.

He said, "we can mobilise 60 billion cedis under each scheme to over 780 billion cedis" in five years.

He said CIBA has taken these initiatives because it commands the larger chunk of the productive sector of the economy, which if properly organised and focused could provide the impetus required to make the informal sector the engine of growth of the economy.

Mr Ameyaw said CIBA would pursue a vigorous entrepreneurial skills development for its members to make them take good business decisions. He appealed to government to channel some of the funds under the poverty reduction and related schemes through the Association, adding that it has the right machinery to ensure that such funds went into productive activities. Mr Ben Kittah, National Chairman of the Association said a new chapter has opened in the history of CIBA in the country.

"The chapter will demonstrate to Ghanaians that the new Executives of CIBA do not want to meddle in politics, our prime interest is to promote the well-being of members of the informal sector ", he said. He said a database being developed on its members is expected to capture a large chunk of operators in the informal sector for purposes of widening the tax net.

Mr Kittah thanked DANIDA, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, State Insurance Company (SIC) and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) for supporting the Association's orientation programmes on the development of the schemes. In a speech read for him, the Minister of Employment and Manpower Development, Mr Yaw Barimah commended the leadership of CIBA for their initiative and pledged the government's support towards the realisation of its goals.

Mr Kofi Boateng, a Special Assistant to the Volta Regional Minister, Mr Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa said the Association's health insurance scheme shows the need for such a scheme and hoped that they would be advocates for the government's health insurance scheme.

Togbe Adase IV, of Ho-Ahoe, who chaired the function, expressed the hope that the re-emergence of CIBA has truly opened a new chapter in the development of the informal sector in the. GNA