SUPPORT Her Enterprise (SHE) Impacts, a women’s group committed to the cause of women entrepreneurs, has launched a Female Entrepreneurship Business School (FEBS) to educate, empower, and encourage women entrepreneurs towards avoiding a bleak financial future when they retire or have no strength to work.
Mad. Felicia Maku Quaye, the President of the SHE Impacts said after much research, we have realised that the women lack knowledge in financial literacy and although they have money, they lack the necessary skills in managing same. This result in a situation they do not have anything financial to support themselves by the time they grow and become weak or unable to work.
She said the school when started, will be an annual Business School purposely for women in all forms of entrepreneurship to better educate them to save and invest towards their pension or when they are weak to undertake any economic activity that could rake in revenue. She said the Business School will serve as a platform to educate, empower and encourage participants on the best ways to invest their monies.
She said it is not about getting bigger money to invest but making due with the little incomes that comes into their hands-on daily basis, and that experts in the financial sector will give the entrepreneurs, the needed knowledge on how and where to invest their monies for better result in the future.
Madam Quaye said: “We aim at getting a lot of women on board because they form majority of hairdressers, dressmakers, petty traders, caterers who usually struggle with finances at their old age,” noting, however, that the target groups include women in the offices or those into entrepreneurship in general.
“We want this programme to be springboard to make women especially those doing their own works to become financially literate so that during their pension period, it would not become a bother to themselves, their children or the country at large”, she said.
She said for the start, the FEBS will start in Greater Accra Region on February and progressively extend to the other regions so that all women would benefit from the programme. The maiden edition would be held on Saturday, February 27, 2021.
Naana Takyiwaa Nketia, the Public Relations Officer of the SHE Impacts group said the women’s group has been in existence since 2019 and has been committed to women who are working in the vocational space with the aim of supporting one another. Some of the activities carried include supporting themselves with financial literacy education and sometimes hold training programmes for members to better equip for the constantly changing phase of work. The growth of the members’ business has been the focus of the group since its inception.
She said as a way of helping members and women in general better save and manage their funds, the SHE Impacts in collaboration with the UMB Investment Holdings introduced what is christened ‘Obaamo’ a fund that aims at imbibing a savings culture in women and also providing an avenue for them to be financially independent. The fund, managed by UMB Investment Holdings also seek to create a sustainable foundation for women’s financial empowerment and development in the country.
Membership of the SHE Impacts is opened to the general public of women especially those working in the areas of vocation and that the group works with the Ghana National Association Tailors and Dressmakers and the Hairdressers Association of Ghana.
Speaking to Bridget Dedaa Dafour, a Volunteer with the SHE impacts, she said on the field, it is evident that women entrepreneurs find it difficult to manage their funds as they seek swing with the cash flow hence the School would assist them to really assist them in managing their revenue with pension in view.
