The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on September 27, 2011, announced that it will give the government of Ghana a loan of $31.5 million for the third phase of the Rural Enterprises Project (REP).
The loan is to enhance small businesses in the rural areas focused on women and youth and to extend the results of the first two successful phases of REP, which for the past 16 years has provided rural people with good-quality, easily accessible services such as affordable credit and cost-effective technology to improve productivity.
“This new loan for a third phase, known as the Rural Enterprises Programme, will focus on rural women and youth in all rural areas of Ghana and actively involve local business associations and their umbrella organizations in the planning and implementation of activities,” said the UN agency.
IFAD said rural people have been provided training in business development, project management, partnership building and policy dialogue.
The first phase of the project was implemented in 13 districts in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions while the second phase covered 66 districts nationwide.
Since 1980, IFAD said it has financed 16 programmes and projects in Ghana for a cumulated investment of $224.9 million, leveraging counterpart resources and co-financing of $452.4 million for a total investment portfolio of $677.3 million to reduce rural poverty benefiting 1,785,000 households.
By Ekow Quandzie
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