The Western Chamber Cooperative Credit Union (WESCCU) total assets rose from GH¢19,511.63 as at June 2011 to GH¢91,052.41in June 2012.

The net loans to members also grew from GH¢254.56 in June 2011 to GH¢49,963.94 as at the end of June 2012. Also, during the same period, savings from members also rose from GH¢ 12,781.63 to GH¢75,816.41.

Mr. Richard Bentil, Board Chairman of WESCCU, at the 1st Annual General Meeting in Takoradi explained that WESSCU was established by the Sekondi-Takoradi Chamber of Commerce and Industry to mitigate problems surrounding the access of business finance for members.

“WESSCU began with 15 members in March 2010 and a total savings of GH¢1,030: now it has 480 members with a total savings of GH¢75,816.41. The vision of the credit union was sold to the entire membership of the Takoradi Chamber and was extended to other companies and individuals associated with the chamber,” he said.

He pointed out that the last few years had been very challenging against the backdrop of WESSCU being a new credit union with the vision of bridging the financial gap in the business community. He mentioned some of the challenges of the association as human resources, logistics, and irregular savings as well as the inability of members to save above minimum stated savings.

Mr. Ato Van-Ess, Chairman of the Sekondi-Takoradi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (STCCI), explained that currently the chamber is playing its traditional roles such as advocacy, export documentation processing, business development services, networking, business training, and nternational trade among others.

“STCCI is an association serving and promoting the commercial and industrial interests of small and large companies in the Western Region of Ghana -- we have a vision of being known as Ghana’s most influential Private Sector Association, providing maximum value to its members by recognising and encouraging the private sector’s role as the driving force in the national economy.”

According to him, in June 2010 the chamber observed that it was time to look into the issue of access to credit being a major challenge for most businesses -- especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

“Our objective is to offer arduous-free and affordable credit to our SMEs, and so our common bond had always been individuals and businesses associated with the chamber -- through financial self-mobilisation, we are of the conviction that we can provide our needed credit ourselves without knocking at the doors of traditional financial institutions,” he said.

He entreated members of the association to regularly save with WESSCU, access loans for business initiatives and become disciplined borrower to preclude possibility off the loan redundancy that is characterising a number of financial institutions nowadays.