Women empowerment course on remittances flow held in Accra
A free online financial literacy course designed to empower women on remittance flow and their usage has been launched in Accra.
Organised by German Development Cooperation (GIZ), Programme Migration and Diaspora,and Purple Almond Consult, the course would educate people, particularly women, through an interactive online course which seeks to equip the users with basic skills to manage their remittances productively.
Mr Gerald Guskowski, Head of Sustainable Economic Development at GIZ Ghana, said remittance flows and their usage were gaining attention in international discourses on migration and sustainable development.
“Remittances have evolved into a reliable source of funds for accelerating human development, financial inclusion, and productive investment,” he said.
He said realising the development potential of remittances was not an easy process, adding that owners of resources, senders and recipients have their own priorities and typically allocate just a small portion of these resources once basic needs were met.
“Yet, many people around the world not only lack the capabilities to make prudent financial decisions, but also lack the insight to commit remittance funds into marginal investments to realise returns,” he said.
Mr Guskowski said the online modules have already been designed to cover diaspora money transfers on relevant business-related areas such as entrepreneurship, insurance, savings, and investment.
According to him, GIZ continues to create a future worth living around the world, thus ‘we hope to provide an engaging and robust online training product for women in remittance receiving households, and to deliver this successfully to a pilot cohort of women’.
“Currently, GIZ promotes sustainable development in Ghana via about 50 programmes and projects. GIZ is boosting Ghana’s potential by focusing its projects on three priority areas: Responsibility for our planet – climate and energy, Training and sustainable growth for decent jobs as well as Peaceful and inclusive societies. Additionally, our portfolio extends to other areas such as environment, peace and security,” Mr Guskowski noted.
He said PMD supports regular migration and labour mobility, diaspora cooperation related activity fields, such as promoting diaspora organisations, qualified diaspora professionals and people interested in setting up their own businesses.
Ms Florence Hop-Wudu, Managing Partner, Purple Almond Consult, was optimistic that the course would help improve the skills and confidence of women in using digital financial services in order to invest a portion of remittances for sustainable economic development.
She advised women to develop the habit of saving, “no matter how small your money at hand, try and save it for the future”.
