Greater Accra traders enjoy financial literacy trainings

About 300 traders from the Greater Accra Region have been educated on financial issues to better manage their finances and businesses.

The participants were taken through topics such as investment, operations of Ponzi schemes, retirement planning, insurance and savings, credit and digital services and planning for their finances.

The programme, attended by members of trade associations, such as Dansoman Traders Association, New Makola Traders Association, Madina-Abokobi Traders Association and Teshie-Laskala Traders Association, is under the Financial Literacy Education Project (FLEP) component of the Ghana Financial Sector Development Project (GFSDP), being funded by the World Bank.

The FLEP is being implemented by the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with Asamoah and Williams Consulting and Trans-Media Network, and partners such as the Ghana Micro Finance Institutions Network, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), and National Insurance Commission (NIC).

Among the objectives of FLEP is to design and implement targeted financial education campaigns to empower consumers and improve their knowledge of the financial system in order to build their capabilities in making sound financial decisions that will promote and secure their financial interests.

As part of the programme, officials of NPRA, SEC, BOG and NIC took turns to educate the traders on investment, banking sector and insurance and pensions, the regulatory institutions to report to when they had problem.

Opening the day’s financial forum dubbed “Financial Education Campaign – Townhall Engagement with Trade Association” at the weekend, the Deputy Director of the Financial Sector Division of the Ministry of Finance, Mr Andrew Ameckson, in remarks made on behalf of his Director, Mr Sampson Akligoh, said the programme was to build the skills and knowledge of the traders on financial issues.

He said most traders fell prey to Ponzi schemes because they had little knowledge on financials issues.

Mr Akligoh said the programme was to create a forum for the traders to interact with officials of the regulatory financial institituitions and ask them financial questions bothering them in relation to investment, savings, insurance and pensions.

The Executive Secretary of Union of Informal Workers (UNIWA), Mrs Deborah Freeman, lauded the Ministry of Finance for organising the programme to educate traders on financial issues.

According to her, most traders did not have knowledge on financial issues and were often swindled by some unscrupulous financial institutions and Ponzi schemes.

The Chairperson of Financial Education Multi -Stakeholder Committee, Mrs Patience Arko-Boham, said the GFSDP programme was part of the financial sector clean-up and reforms undertaken by the government in 2018.

 She said the programme was to educate the traders on how to manage their finances, and entreated them to manage their finances well and desist from unplanned spending to sustain their business. Some of the traders who spoke to the Ghanaian Times expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Finance for organising the programme for them.

BY KINGSLEY ASARE