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 Some participants in the forum
Some participants in the forum

Ghana Poultry Project helps farmers with finance

The Ghana Poultry Project (GPP), with support from the Entrepreneurial Savings and Loans Groups (ESLG), has raised about GH¢653,000 this year to fund its activities.

The five-year poultry project which is being funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and implemented by ACDI/VOCA and TechnoServe, was established to increase productivity in the poultry value chain and competitiveness in domestic production and processing of poultry meat and eggs.

This is to be achieved through capacity building, improved access to markets and promotion strategic investments and private-public partnerships.

At a national learning forum in Accra organised the USDA-GPP, the president of the apex body of Women in Poultry Value Chain (WIPVaC), Dr Victoria Norgbey, said it was obvious that communities were ready to support themselves through the provision of soft loans to support their businesses.

She said that the ESLG had helped to sustain poultry farmers businesses.

“The impact here is that instead of going to the bank to take loans with high interest, the members decide among ourselves how interest rates should be set, sometimes 10 per cent, depending on the group,” she said.

She, therefore, cautioned members to maintain the lower interests on the loans in order to facilitate prompt repayments and ensure sustainability of the scheme.

“The ESLG can only succeed on the foundation of trust for one another. I urge you to try to be honest in your dealings with one another as much as possible,” she said.  

Read: Women in Poultry to attract youth into value chain


ESLG learning forum

The maiden learning forum provided a platform to bring together savings and loans groups that were formed during the implementation of the GPP to share knowledge and learn best practices.

A coordinator of USDA-GPP, Mr Christian Koduah, said the forum offered the opportunity to ESLG members who were mainly poultry farmers to share their experiences (challenges and how they overcame them) during the implementation of the ESLG.

He noted that access to finance and the cost of finance had been a challenge for most businesses and poultry farmers were no exception.

“It is also difficult if not impossible for poultry farmers to get insurance for their line of business because of the risks involved. The formation of the ESLG was therefore to provide self-grown financial support for their poultry businesses,” he added.

Participating in the learning forum via zoom were groups from Bono East, Bono, Ashanti and Upper West regions.

Read: . Women in poultry trained on how to cushion their businesses


In all, the ESLG has 36 groups within Accra, 13 in both Ashanti and Bono regions. A total of 153 members (78 males and 75 females) participated in the learning forum.

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