GERMAN INTERNATIONAL Cooperation (GIZ) has rolled out a free online financial literacy programme to empower women in Ghana.
The e-learning training module, “Making Remittances Work for You” is expected to improve the empowerment of women through financial literacy, particularly for those who receive remittances from abroad.
This capacity-building measure is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Ghana and leverages remittances from the Diaspora as funding for small start-ups.
Head of Sustainable Economic Development at GIZ Ghana, Gerald Guskowski, said remittance flows and their usage are gaining more attention in international discourses on migration and sustainable development.
He added that remittances have evolved into a reliable source of funds for accelerating human development, financial inclusion, and productive investment.
He said many people around the world do not only lack the capabilities to make prudent financial decisions, but also lack the insight to commit remittance funds into marginal investments to realize returns.
“This is especially so for many women who own micro businesses, who may lack financial management competencies despite the popular view that women are the backbone of many micro and family businesses around the world, especially in developing economies, including Ghana,” Mr. Guskowski said.
He indicated that the e-learning programme will thus educate people, particularly women, through an interactive online course adding it seeks to equip the users with basic skills to manage their remittances productively.
“The online modules have already been designed to cover Diaspora money transfers on relevant business-related areas such as entrepreneurship, insurance, savings, and investment,” he explained “This form of empowerment will go a long way to promote sustainable socio-economic development.”
He noted that GIZ seeks to create a future worth living around the world; thus, “We hope to provide an engaging and robust online training product for women in remittance-receiving households, and to deliver this successfully to a pilot cohort of women. This will help improve the skills and confidence of women in using digital financial services so that they are better able to invest a portion of remittances for sustainable economic development.”
He also said “This could be achieved for example, via micro-savings, entrepreneurship, investment in existing local businesses, or insurance.”
The e-learning product, is currently online on GIZ’s e-learning platform, Atingi, and can be accessed through www.atingi.org.
BY Jamila Akweley Okertchiri