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Package launched for physically challenged at Kasoa

A section of persons with disability exhibiting placards as they walked through some principal streets of Kasoa.Opportunity International Savings and Loans Limited (OISL) has launched a loan package to assist physically challenged people to grow  their own businesses.

Christened the “Empowerment Loan”, the product is geared towards empowering person’s with disability by providing them with the needed financial assistance to boost their business activities.

It is doing this in partnership with the Ghana Society for the Physically Disabled (GSPD).

Speaking at the launch of the scheme at Kasoa in the Central Region, the  Chief Executive of the OISL, Mr Kwame Owusu-Boateng, said the rationale behind the scheme was to address the challenges physically challenged persons faced in accessing loans for their businesses.

“Beside the high interest rates, documentation and collateral demanded by financial institutions remain a big hindrance to many of them. We thus developed a special loan package with low interest rate for our disabled friends,” he said.

He said the 2010 population census revealed that three per cent of the Ghanaian populace, representing about 737,743 Ghanaians, were physically challenged and that there was the need for them to be taken through financial training to equip them to manage their business.

According to Mr Owusu-Boateng, OISL had worked with different groups of clients, including artisans, market women, farmers, fish mongers and people from different sectors of the economy.

“Our loan portfolio as of the end of July 2013 was GH¢ 62,438,718. Out of this, 110 physically challenged clients from Koforidua, Nkwakaw and Kasoa have benefited from the loans amounting to GH¢60, 400,” he said.

By Emmanuel Baah/Daily Graphic/Ghana

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