By Dennis Osei Gyamfi, GNA
Accra, Oct. 14, GNA - Mrs Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, Executive Director of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has said her outfit has supported 13,366 artisans in five selected regions since the inception of the Sanitation Marketing (SANMARK) Project in December 2018.
She said 265 Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) were supported with various forms of Business Development Services (BDS), and 348 VSLA members were trained in soap making.
She said this at a one-day Stakeholders Review Meeting on the SANMARK Project in Accra.
The meeting sought to take stock of the activities that the NBSSI undertook together with their partners on the UNICEF WASH-SANMARK Programme.
Mrs Yankey-Ayeh noted that business partnership meetings of the project organised brought together 1,064 people comprising; Latrine Artisans and Sanitation Entrepreneurs.
“As well, 177 Latrine Artisans have been trained, counselled and registered. Business partnership meetings were also held to promote sanitation business networks of partners through public-private partnership approach,” she said.
She said the NBSSI was brought on board and given a lead role in the SANMARK Project in 2018 to promote sanitation as an alternative livelihood.
She commended the UNICEF for the partnership and hoped that the successes chalked would be sustained to ensure that Ghana was totally declared an open defecation free country.
Mrs Lorreta Roberts, UNICEF WASH Specialist said, the partnership was to help move sanitation forward by tackling it in a more business way than a normal waste issue.
She said government alone could not take on sanitation and so it was important for them to also come on board and ensure a clean environment.
Mrs Roberts said, they were happy with the progress of the Project and hoped that more of such success stories would be heard with time.
Mrs Faustina Essandoh Yeddu, Acting National Director of the Department of Community Development said sanitation marketing was an emerging field that debunked the notion that sanitation was waste, but rather a huge business arena.
She said if properly developed, it could offer employment opportunities to people and provide access to basic sanitation needs and benefits.
The Sanmatk Project has focused on improving the formal and informal supply chains, products, and services to expand the delivery of affordable basic sanitation with the application of commercial marketing techniques.
The Project created multiple livelihoods and entrepreneurs within the sanitation space and is being implemented in five regions: Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Central and Volta regions.
GNA
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