She said the investments of many female traders had gone to waste because they did not employ sound business practices. Ms Essien was addressing more than 100 rural women traders, including petty traders and fishmongers, who were given training in Business and Financial Management, Record Keeping and the Methods and Benefits of Savings.

The participants, who were from Ampenyi, in the KEEA Municipality, were also taught how to cost and price their products and transact business to make profit. The 12-day training programme, organised and sponsored by the KEEA Rural Enterprise Programme/Business Advisory Centre (REP/BAC) Project, was to equip the women with the requisite knowledge to transform their businesses.

Ms Essien said an assessment conducted by her office indicated that rural women sold their products without first costing them. This practice, she noted, affected their pricing and eventually their profits. The training was thus designed to address such problems before they would be introduced to the banks for financial assistance.

Ms Essien said more often, instead of saving and investing part of their profits in the businesses, the women tended to squander everything, plus their capital on family expenses and this affected the growth of the business.  She, therefore, advised them to use part of their profits to pay themselves, save some and reinvest the rest in their trading activities.

A resource person, Mr. Abedi Atiemoh from NOABS Company Limited, urged the women to strategise and sell produce with high market demand and also desist from mismanaging their capital.