The Women of Worth (WOW) single parent financial facility programme was hailed by Chairman of the Regional Women’s Affairs Committee Valarie Adams-Sharpe and Single Parent Cosmetologist Kamlawattie Rampersaud as a guaranteed way of uplifting single parents economically. The micro-credit scheme was launched on Friday at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) after the way was paved in the National Assembly the previous evening with the passage of the Credit Reporting Bill which seeks to provide for the establishment of a credit reporting industry that enables more reliable, competitive, and responsible credit lending, while protecting borrowers’ rights.
The loan plan aids and accelerates the impact of micro-finance to eligible women (single parents) for them to become budding entrepreneurs. Loans range from $100,000 to $250,000 and will attract interest at the rate of six percent per annum with a maximum repayment period of 24 months.
The applicant must be between the ages of 18 and 60 , earning less than $40,000 per month and must be registered with the Ministry’s Security Single Parent Registry.
The Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI), the financial institution supporting the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security in executing the programme, has allocated a sum of $500M, in the first instance, to the new loan plan to assist female single parents with financing to establish and expand small businesses such as catering, dressmaking, poultry and fabric painting.
Chairperson of the Region Ten Women’s Affairs Committee, Pastor Valerie Adams-Sharpe, said she had no doubt in her mind that the micro credit scheme would be a reality after hearing about it for the first time from Minister of Human Services and Social Security Priya Manickchand, when the Minister visited Region Ten to distribute cheques to single parent registrants.
Pastor Sharpe explained that there are many single parents in society willing to help themselves, but are limited because of the absence of an adequate supportive mechanism.
“Many of them long for an opportunity like this which would assist them to express themselves and exhibit their skills and maximize their potential,” Pastor Sharpe explained.
The impact of micro-credit has been positive, according to Pastor Sharpe, who said her experience has taught her that this has promoted saving habits among women and has motivated them to take an active role in the political sphere.
Working at the Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP), Pastor Sharpe said she observed that loans given to women are often not diverted to other purposes other than their original intent.
“In the past two years, we set aside $100M each to go towards supporting single parents because we recognise that they need special support, because they bring up a lot of the children of this country and those children need the same support network that everyone else has,” President had Jagdeo said.
In 2008, the Human Services Ministry began the process of registering single parents on a national register and then there was the Single Parent Assistance Plan which enabled the training of 362 single parents in areas of cosmetology, information technology repairs, child care and care for the elderly, and garment construction.
Training was provided by the Board of Industrial Training under the supervision of Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir. A total of 365 of those trained single parents received presidential grants in the form of vouchers of $65,000 to start up their small businesses in the areas of training.
Rampersaud, a beneficiary of the Human Services Ministry’s single parent training programme, said at Friday’s launch that the programme has enabled her to establish her own business in cosmetology.
“It was my dream and the Government of Guyana realized that dream for me,” Rampersaud said. (GINA)