Madam Mary Boatemaa Marfo, the District Chief Executive, said so far about 200 women have already been selected to undergo training in entrepreneurship, trade and vocation in order to improve on their economic status.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency during a tour of some communities in the district, she said the aim was to provide alternative livelihood support to women, especially those in rural communities to be able to cater for their families.

Madam Marfo said the training programme which would begin in March this year, has been divided into three parts.

The first is to train market women and those engage in agro-processing to build their capacities in book keeping, business management and others to enable them manage their businesses to increase their profit.

The second is to offer training to women farmers on modern agronomic practices and the use of high yielding inputs to increase yield production and incomes.

Additionally, some of the women would be trained in alternative livelihoods such as bee keeping, soap making, tie and dye cloth making among others, to enable them have additional incomes to cater for their families.

Madam Marfo said the objective was to help alleviate abject poverty among women in rural communities, promote their financial independence and help them to improve on their living conditions.

‘‘Women especially those in the rural communities are always found to be very vulnerable and they have direct dependency on their children.

This implies that empowering them will go a long way to secure families against poverty and related hardship conditions’’, she said.

Touching on the training of women in farming, she said the initiative was a strategic process of the district assembly in collaboration with the district directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, to build the capacities of the women to produce various crops not just for subsistence, but to increase their yields, add value and attract markets.

Madam Marfo said the assembly was focusing on empowering the women in the area in order to facilitate rural development and aid in attaining the sustainable development goals.

She said funding for the initiative would be coming from the District Common Fund and called on development partners, civil society organizations and NGOs who could support the process, to collaborate with the district assembly to enhance success and sustainability of the initiative.