The Department of Social Welfare and Community Development has the mandate to improve the livelihood of the people in the district. As part of their mandate, the department trains its staff on group dynamics, the history of VSLA, basic principles of Village Saving and Loan Association (VSLA), record keeping, and numeracy.
The exercise was to equip its staff with the capacity of VSLA to also go to the various Communities to train the women groups on money-saving, record keeping, and how to improve their livelihood through the VSLA to reduce poverty in the district.
The staff were taken through a slide presentation and below was the outline.
Training plan for the core VSLA modules
- Module 1: Groups, Leadership and Election.
- Module 2: VSLA funds, Development of policies and rules.
- Module 3: Development of VSLA Byelaws.
- Module 4: First share purchase/saving meeting.
- Module 5: First Loan Disbursement and Record Keeping.
- Module 6: First Loan Repayment Meetings.
- Module 7: First Share Out Meeting.
Benefits of joining a VSLA
- Access resources that enable them to build assets, meet household needs, and smooth out consumption and shocks.
- Mutual social support through association with like-minded people; participate in decision-making and grow in self-confidence and self-reliance.
- Receive a portion of the interest earned from loans according to the amount of savings; and
- Opportunity to receive additional educational services and support e.g., financial literacy, nutrition, and food security, agricultural extension, adult literacy, cell phone literacy, entrepreneurship, linkage with other financial services institutions such as banks, savings and credit associations, and microfinance institutions (MFIs).
How to know whether the VSLAs are performing well?
- Regular attendance of meetings by group members.
- Consistent savings, social fund contributions, and successful on-time loan repayments.
- Accurate passbooks and proper record-keeping, and
- Faithful adherence to the rules and regulations in the by-laws.
In conclusion, the staff of SWCD and Nadowli-Kaleo District thank USAID FEED THE FUTURE for their support and Funding for the Resilience in Northern Ghana Systems Strengthening Activity
(RING II) activities to enrich their knowledge of Village Savings and Loans Associations and they also assure they will deliver to the women groups in the district to also benefit from what they have gained from the train.