Agona Swedru, June 17, GNA - About 1,200 small-scale businessmen and businesswomen in the Agona and Awutu-Effutu-Senya districts are to be trained and given loans to expand their businesses under the Urban Poverty Reduction Project. Mrs. Elizabeth Abena Nkrumah, the Zonal Officer Central and Western regions Social Investment Fund (SIF), said this at separate launches of the project in the two districts at Agona Swedru and Kasoa. She said the beneficiaries would be given loans of between 4,000 and 5,000 dollars and that those who could employ between four and five people were the targets.

Mrs. Nkrumah said vulnerable people in the two areas would be identified and assisted to learn trades including hairdressing, dressmaking, tailoring and masonry. She said the medical bills, school fees and feeding expenses of the children of trainees would be borne by the project during their apprenticeship.

Mr Ben Mensah, the District Chief Executive for Agona, said sensitization and information campaign has started and that the programme would finance waste collection and management, neighborhood road construction, street paving and covering ditches. Mr Solomon Abbam Quaye, District Chief Executive for Awutu-Effutu-Senya urged the people in Kasoa to strive to ensure the success of the project.

He said Kasoa is among the 12 beneficiary towns in the country and therefore urged the people to mobilize their resources towards the implementation of the projects in order to reduce poverty. Mr Quaye appealed to assembly members, traditional rulers, MPs and other stakeholders to contribute their quota towards the success of the projects in the district.