Voltic Ghana Limited says it is committed to improving the lot of women in its value chain through economic empowerment programmes to help them to be self-reliant.
Mrs Joyce Ahiadorme, the Public and Communications Manager of Voltic, said an important part of the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts in 2018 had been geared towards empowering women in their value chain, particularly those at the lower end of the chain, including hawkers, to be economically independent.
Mrs Ahiadorme was speaking to a section of journalists when the company hosted winners of the 2018 Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) Flamingo Awards to a tour of its Akwadum Water Bottling Facility in the Eastern Region on Wednesday.
The tour was part of Voltic’s sponsorship towards the fifth IFEJ Flamingo awards held on December 14, 2018. She said the company had, so far, directly empowered about 900 women with livelihood empowerment skills, which include financial literacy and savings training.
Two widows in the Ashanti Region were also set up in trade by the company, who paid for the rental of stores for three years. It is expected that the financial advice support given them would have enabled them to save enough to continue payments on their own, and one-time payment for stock worth GH¢6000.
Mrs Ahiadorme noted that one of the widows was doing exceptionally well in the business and has sold the entire initial stock and restocked. The move formed part of Voltic’s sustainability priorities dubbed: “The 3Ws-Women Empowerment; Water Stewardship and Waste Management.”
“Our mission - to refresh Ghana every day while making the country a better place for all - is translated into our sustainability priorities dubbed; The 3Ws- Women empowerment; Water Stewardship and Waste Management,” she said. The 3Ws demonstrate Voltic’s commitment towards creating greater shared opportunity for the business and the communities we serve across the value-chain,” Mrs Ahiadorme stated.
Voltic was also working with its partners under the Irecycle programme that it is championing to help sustainably manage its post-consumer waste from households in Accra and Tema Metropolis. “The programme is a collection and segregation drive, which will see Voltic and its partners provide alternative bins at 40 locations, mainly Total Service stations,” Mrs Ahiadorme said.
The goal is to encourage consumers to segregate their plastics into those special containers.
She noted that Voltic was proud to work with journalists, especially members of IFEJ, who worked tirelessly to bring news-worthy stories that informed business decisions while bringing to the fore areas of opportunities for businesses to impact deprived communities.