As part of steps towards improving operations of the Village Savings and Loans Associations in communities, the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA-Gh), has been facilitating the creation of accounts with financial institutions by men and women in the various groups.
The Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA), are groups created through SWIDA-Ghana’s initiative to encourage members of its project communities to cultivate the habit of saving and creditworthiness, as these are needed for business growth.
Most of the members of the groups are engaged in petty trading, for which they need to be conscious about their expenditure and loan taking and repayment habits.
After years of saving in the VSLA boxes and sharing out their savings at the end of the year, SWIDA-Ghana found that members need to own bank accounts with credible financial institutions, since their money is growing and they have now grown in themselves the habit of saving.
This is also to increase the security around the money the VSLA members own, due to certain occurrences of theft and breakages on the boxes in which the money is saved.
The Village and Savings and Loans initiative is one of the oldest and flagship programmes of SWIDA-Ghana, through which the organization has empowered many women in rural northern Ghana, economically.
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