Investing in Communities: February 17, 2005 - Report Contributions from Ghana 1.

Investing in communities will develop them with the capabilities to save and develop savings habit. Savings could be channeled into credit for other members of the society and this will lead to economic development and wealth creation. Communities will be able to pay for school fees of their children and the cycle of development will ensue. From: Mustapha Sarbeng (Bank of Ghana)

2. Memoranda: Is it possible to have a contact group or name closest to Ghana that deals directly with individual entrepreneurship in rural Africa as well as investment in project work and on gender advocacy? Thank you. From: Gladys Ma Lartey Email:glartey@yahoo.co.uk Mailing address: C/o IFC DD-149, Dodowa, Ghana.

3a. Communities in Ghana have invested in themselves to improve their lives, one such community is the Ga-Adangme of Alogboshie in Accra. An example is the pooling of resources to take care of a neighbours funeral; wards/childrens school or vocational training fees. In order to do this, the members of the community aged 18 and above are to pay a fixed amount on a monthly basis. Part of the proceeds is invested and the rest is used in taking care of needs mentioned earlier.

This seems to have united the community and when members move to other communities or countries, majority of them still feel obliged to carry out those social responsibilities back home.

(b) Helping the Zambian Womens group sustain their activities in cloth making . We have been able to sustain similar projects in Ghana; using the example of two women groups in the textile and batik making industry. Some Ghanaians (including myself and friends) have made it a point to economically empower young women who would otherwise have found themselves on the streets or engaged in commercial sex. We do

this by purchasing their products. It is common sight to spot Ghanaians dressed up for work, formal and informal functions in Ghanaian made tailored textiles or batik. I

personally wear batik suits on the average of four out of the five working days. To boost this further, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Presidential Initiative launched the National Friday Wear last November. This has inspired a lot more people to make a conscious effort in wearing Ghanaian fabrics on Fridays.

One other womens group that specialized in making checked materials have had some individuals assist them in identifying schools (especially second cycle schools) that use such fabrics fo r uniforms and house dresses. These schools buy the fabric in bulk and this help keep the cost of the uniforms down as well as ready income for the women to be able to carry on with their economic activities.

3c. Lack of investment in communities Just after this dialogue, two incidents occurred in Ghana and this reflected the repercussions of the lack of investment in communities. First was the armed robbery that took place on the highway from Brong Ahafo Region to the Northern Region shortly after 03:00am GMT on Wednesday 23rd Feb, 2005. Second was the fire outbreak that

destroyed 90 stores in all at the Kumasi Central Market rendering 90 store owners penniless.

The first incidence Eight armed men held hostage more than a hundred passengers, majority of them women who were on their way to buy food from the Northern and others who were going down south to buy goods. The Police officers from two stations were contacted but they were not resourced enough to handle the situation. The armed men were able to rob the passengers of their moneys, jewels and other valuables. Some passengers who claimed they did not have any money on them were stabbed.

The armed men after two hours finally got away in one of their victims car and later abandoned the car when its alarm system went off and they could not manage that.

Incident 2- The Tema and Kumasi Central Markets Fire Breakouts Within two weeks, two markets in Ghana have had some of their stores gushed down by fire, leaving the owners with nothing but ashes. It happened at the Tema Market two weeks ago and just three days ago (Feb.23rd) fire was spotted on the night of Wednesday at the Kumasi Central Market. Although the Fire Services Officers got to the scene on time, they could not access the fire due to very poor access route. They eventually had to bring in bulldozers to clear structures (other stores) to be able to get to the fire. It took them nine good hours to by the time they brought the fire under control. Meanwhile all the structures and wares were reduced to ashes.

The sad part of these fire outbreaks were that majority of the traders had not insurance cover.

Personally, I do see a serious lack of investment on the part of the stakeholders - owners of the stores, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) who is the custodian of the market and the insurance companies in Ghana. Each of them could have avoided this disaster if only: 1. The traders have invested in some form of insurance scheme that could have lessened the risk they now face. 2. The KMA could have ensured good access to all parts of the market during the construction period especially when a similar incident occurred some years back at the same market. (Cape Town City Shopping Centre is a very good example of a well designed access for a shopping place) 3. The insurance companies could have undertaken some serious campaigns by selling the benefits of their schemes to the traders but all we see them do is market their services to the formal sectors and not the informal sector. I will end by saying that some effort on the part of all the stakeholders could have saved majority of these stores if only each of them had invested in the others interest. Mrs. Vivian H. M. Attah Acting Director, GIMPA- DLC Email: vhmattah@yahoo.com

4.During the discussions before the VC, participants discussed various approaches used for investing in communities in Ghana. One observation was that since the deregulation of the telecom sector, Ghana ians from various walks of live can now afford mobile phones. Its usage has enhanced the performance of our market women tremendously.

Ghanaian market women operate as a family business. This may involve an entire family or a partnership between a mother and her daughters or sons. This social network operates with one member at the farm gate communicating with the others as regards the stock levels on the various markets, the best price offers and which markets to avoid due to gluts. Apart from the above, they also use it to inform members their location should any unforeseen incident occur during their travels around the country in pursuit of food items or other goods.