The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, has called on researchers to interrogate the role of Microfinance in attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) One .
The SDG one focuses on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.
In a speech read on his behalf by the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dora Edu-Buandoh, he said there had been several research on Microfinance with different outcomes on to poverty its contribution hence, the need to give the issue a serious attention. For instance, microfinance contribution to the decline in poverty has been contested by some researchers
Prof. Ampiah made the call when he spoke at the 10th Microfinance Conference under the auspices of the School of Economics and the Faculty of Social Sciences on the theme “Microfinance and the Sustainable Development Goals”. The theme has become relevant, especially at a time when the financial sector in Ghana has come under scrutiny.
Stakeholders Should Benefit from Communiqué
The Central Regional Minister, Honorable Kwamena Duncan, called on organisers of the conference to make the presentations and ideas beneficial to relevant stakeholders for the needed attention. He called for a platform to educate people so that they could make informed decisions on which banks to save their money.
Purpose of Gathering
Giving the purpose of gathering at the Conference, the Dean of School of Economics, Dr. Emmanuel Ekow Asmah said the conference would provide participants with opportunities to share their thoughts and exchange ideas on the way forward towards sustainable development and improvement in welfare”.
Presentations
The two-day conference saw presentations on issues such as Microfinance as Strategy for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in Nigeria, Village Savings and loans as a means of Microfinance Livelihood Development of rural Women and poverty Reduction, Microfinance, mobile Technology as a vehicle for inclusive Society and more.
Background
The 2019 conference is the 10th in a series since 2006 and marks 15 years of formal engagement in microfinance by the University. Within these years, several interventions have been made including the introduction of training programmes at all levels within the higher education system; contributing to the discourse and development of the policy frameworks to guide operations in the sector, for academics, practitioners, investors, and policymakers to interrogate happenings in the sector in order to improve performance on Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) for the realization of the Microfinance promise.
Participants
In attendance were Microfinance practitioners, bankers, officials from Credit Union Association, lecturers and students