Agona-Nkwanta (W/R) Feb. 2 GNA - Mr Frank Edua, General Manager of the Credit Unions Association (CUA), has said poverty could only be alleviated through the establishment of credit unions.

He said the poor savings habit of many Ghanaian workers coupled with low incomes, made Credit Unions the only viable way of redeeming workers from perpetual financial bondage.

Mr. Edua made these remarks at the first annual general meeting of the Ghana Rubber Estate Limited (GREL) Credit Unions Association at Agona Nkwanta on Sunday.

He reminded workers to start planning towards their retirement irrespective of their income levels, position and age. "If you fail to prepare, your retirement is likely to catch up with you within the shortest time and ruin your dreams and aspirations about life" he stressed.

Mrs Aba Smith, National Chairperson of the Credit Unions Association (CUA), called on the Bank of Ghana (BOG) to speed up its work on the CUA bill.

"This bill when passed will enable us to operate our bank and other financial institutions in addition to the regular savings schemes". She appealed to Ghanaians to offer voluntary and honest leadership in whatever position they found themselves.

"These are the only attributes that can make people believe in us and rely on our advice and counselling for a successful future," she added. She urged the management of CUA to extend its activities to the Apimanim and Agona Nkwanta communities to enable the people to enjoy financial assistance and said competent people should be made to handle the finances of the union to enable it to expand rapidly.

Miss Diana Basoah, Manager of the Union said it was started with 11 members in 1999 but now had a membership of 570.

She said the union gave out a total of 302 million cedis as loans to members last year as against 83 million cedis in 2002 and made a net profit of 17 million cedis last year as against four point one million cedis in 2002.

She disclosed that most of the members had started small-scale businesses including poultry and corn milling while others had purchased lands to build houses.