Local NGO, No Business As Usual (NBU), together with its partners, the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly, is hoping to empower 65 per cent of the female population in the area.

The youth will be the main target of the project which is expected to include more women in economic activities to help boost the local economy. This is hinged on Goal-5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which bothers on gender equity.

NBU project is founded on the belief that achievement of gender equity will facilitate the attainment of all sixteen global socio-economic goals.

Project Coordinator, Esther Martey, believes education on gender equality should be enhanced to improve family and community finances. She believes achieving gender equity will facilitate the attainment of other goals linked to economic and social issues.

Miss Martey wants sensitization efforts to be sustained.

“We want the females in this municipality to be more empowered from our training in entrepreneurship and employable skills. So we realised that most of the ladies are a bit timid, therefore the need to have such a seminar and we hope to do more in this area,” she emphasised.

Meanwhile, the Gender Desk of the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly indicates most women in the area are unable to participate in development due to gender inequality.

Head of Desk, Phyllis Nkrumah, says they are working on dealing with identified challenges.

“Women are supposed to be the submissive type and that does not help their development. We are trying to identify all the shortfalls and work at dealing with it”, she added.

The No Business as Usual project is a collaboration between SOS Children’s Villages Ghana and the Asokore Mampong Municipality with funding from the European Union.

The operations in the Asokore Mampong Municipality aim at harnessing the ideas and energies of the youth within the Municipality for economic development.