GIZ Ghana, through the Financial Systems Development (FSD) component of the Programme for Sustainable Economic Development (PSED), has donated digital equipment to the Ghana Cooperative Susu Collectors Association (GCSCA).
The donation forms part of a strategy to equip industry players with tools that meet the demands brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, in a bid to build the capacity of players in Ghana’s microfinance sector.
The equipment, valued at about GH¢100,000, includes laptops and software such as Quick Books licenses with an objective to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the work of the Association, particularly for consolidation of reports and during monitoring of operations. It was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
GIZ’s strategy for the development of the financial sector aims to improve compliance with regulations in the microfinance and insurance sectors, and thus contribute to the stability of the country’s financial sector.
“The strengthening of regulation, supervision, and compliance is expected to reduce the risk of insolvencies or poor performance by microfinance institutions and enhance the stability of the financial sector as a whole,” noted the Head of the Programme for Sustainable Economic Development at GIZ-Ghana, Detlev Jahn during a brief ceremony in Accra to donate the equipment.
The Bank of Ghana has mandated the Ghana Cooperative Susu Collectors Association to supervise the operations of all entities engaged in susu collection business in the country.
Susu collection is a traditional system of mobilising deposit whereby a person – susu collector – visits the workplace of individuals, mostly traders, artisans, etc to collect cash deposits on daily basis over a period of one month (31 days).
The money is returned to the contributor at the end of the 31 days and a day’s collection is taken by the collector as the fee. For GCSCA to effectively discharge their self-regulatory mandate, GIZ has been supporting the association to digitize its monitoring and supervision unit. This donation is part of the support GIZ is providing to augment the association’s digitization agenda.
Receiving the donation, Edmund Benjamin-Addy, General Manager, GCSCA, thanked GIZ for coming to their aid, saying: “We called on GIZ not too long ago to support us consolidate data collection and true to their words, we are here today to receive this equipment.”
He was optimistic that that gesture will go a long way to help the association improve on data collection and reporting to the central bank.
