The assistance was to help them engage in income-generating activities such as hairdressing, weaving, pito brewing, soap-making, trading and farming.

The rest are producing soya beans, bee-keeping, groundnut oil and shea butter processing, among others.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the bank, Abdul Sallam Bamie, made these known in an interview as part of activities commemorating International Women’s Day at Jirapa last Wednesday.

The bank operates in five catchment areas, namely Nadowli, Lambussie, Wa and Hain with its headquarters at Jirapa.

Rural enterprises

Mr Bamie said the bank was engaged in organising women to enter into rural enterprises holistically.

He explained that as “having access to technology, innovations, entrepreneurial training, finance and also how to market their products.

As such, he said, they trained the women by using local materials into doing what they could do better after which they were supported with micro-credits to reduce rural poverty and improve the standard of living.

Mr Bamie said the women have been organised into 43 groups and given credits depending on what they were doing.

Some of the beneficiaries expressed their joy about the credit facilities to engage in income-generating ventures and above all, their abilities to take their destiny into their own hands.

Savings

Touching on the importance of savings, he said the micro-finance concept of the bank had proved that people with low incomes through determination could cut down on frivolous expenditures to accumulate seed capital to plan for the future.

“This has come to disprove the hitherto held axiom that savings are made when one had more than needed.

“To make savings calls for a great sacrifice to differentiate between needs and wants,” Mr Bamie explained.