MARCH 28, 2005

Update from Peki and Matsekope Epicenters in Ghana

Report sent from Accra, Ghana, by Jennifer Thomson, Senior Program Officer

Women from the Peki and Matsekope Epicenters and the village of Toflokpo in rural Ghana are eager to create their own rural banks! They are laying the groundwork for official recognition by the national government of their facilities as licensed banking institutions. Hundreds of women, who participate with the African Woman Food Farmer Initiative (AWFFI) and its micro-credit program for women farmers, are mobilized to create their own banks.

Mrs. Akoto, who chairs the Peki Epicenter AWFFI rural bank management committee, collects AWFFI members’ payments of shares to become members of the new AWFFI rural bank.

One of the AWFFI rural bank members speaks

A Matsekope Epicenter AWFFI loan committee member speaks

Christine, Chair of the Matsekope Epicenter AWFFI loan committee (woman at far left), leads the commitment part of the Vision, Commitment and Action Workshop, designed to mobilize the women in creating their own bank.

Participants in one of the meetings.