GIZ Ghana, through the Financial Systems Development (FSD)component of the Programme for Sustainable Economic Development (PSED), with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), has donated digital equipment to the Ghana Cooperative Susu Collectors Association (GCSCA).

This is in a bid to build the capacity of players in Ghana’s microfinance sector.

The donation forms part of a strategy to equip industry players with tools that meet the demands brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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 Ghana’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 equipment 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.

The Bank of Ghana has mandated the Ghana Cooperative Susu Collectors Association (GCSCA) to supervise the operations of all entities engaged in the susu collection business in Ghana. 

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.