The Board of Directors and Management of the Sinapi Aba Trust (SAT), a micro finance institution, has inaugurated its head office building in Kumasi to offer investment opportunities to small- and medium-scale businesses to enable them to expand their businesses or invest in new ones.
The building has been named Gale House in appreciation of the tremendous contributions of Reverend and Mrs Fred Gale towards the effective development of the SAT over the past 14 years.
Sinapi Aba Trust was designed to provide micro finance services to the ordinary resident in the Kumasi Metropolis and its environs to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development.
The inauguration of the Kumasi head office brings the total number of branches of the trust to 38 countrywide. Its clients have also increased to over 700,000 nation-wide.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Rev Davis Freeman, commended the financial service officers of the trust for their commitment and hard work, which had enhanced the fortunes of the trust, making it possible to expand its services.
He said the board and management of the trust were determined to provide the needed support to "the poorest of the economically active poor, to enhance their lives through micro finance and basic business training".
He stressed that "the mission of SAT is to serve as a mustard seed through which opportunities for enterprise development and income generation are provided to the economically disadvantaged to transform their lives".
The SAT, he noted, was also "dedicated to providing consulting, training and research services to its clients to reduce poverty. It is dedicated to the creation of job opportunities for the youth as well as providing the required business management training for micro entrepreneurs to enhance their gradual growth from micro level to the macro level".
The wife of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Lady Julia, who was the special guest of honour, commended the board and management of the SAT for their sense of innovation and initiatives and urged them to continue to initiate innovative programmes and policies that would enable them to provide "a whole range of financial services to clients in the low income group".
This, she said, would make it possible for them to contribute more meaningfully towards accelerated and sustainable socio-economic development in the country.
"I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Sinapi Aba on this special focus in its services and encourage it to do more in this area. The ability to borrow funds to invest in small income-producing enterprises has enhanced the socio-economic development of many vulnerable women and their dependants", she observed.
The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Professor George Gyan Baffour, for his part, urged micro finance companies to design more products, which would be easily accessible and affordable "to bring on board the huge portion of our population, which is still ignorant of the inherent benefits of the micro finance industry for their businesses".
He added that in line with the Golden Age of Business target, the NPP government had introduced tax relief incentives and capacity building programmes for the benefit of business enterprises.
Professor Gyan Baffour said the political stability of the country had also promoted the development of business, stressing that "business does not only thrive on adequate resources, but, more important, in an atmosphere of peace and political stability.
"The steady growth of the economy, especially the stability of key macroeconomic indicators, such as inflation and the foreign exchange rate, has also impacted positively on business activities.
Inflation has always been a major stumbling block to micro financing operation. However, the current low inflation rate has become a major boost to the industry," he stated.
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