International Credit Union Day in Ghana

The United Nations has officially proclaimed 2012 as The Year of the Co-operative. They claim, and I tend to agree, that co-operatives offer people a unique opportunity for economic and social development in a time of economic uncertainty. Co-operatives and credit unions represent their members economically and offer the opportunity for people to develop their own economic environment. Last week, I was lucky enough to get to experience the celebrations of International Credit Union Day in the city of Ho in the Volta Region of Ghana. The celebration of International Credit Union Day in the International Year of Co-operatives is most definitely something to experience, no matter where in the world I could be. But I was lucky enough to be in Ghana, a country that is discovering it’s economic place in the world and the role that co-operatives play in that system. The credit union movement in Ghana is a bustling and growing movement with a lot of excitement in the air.

On Friday afternoon a tour bus pulled up outside of the Credit Union of Association head office where I work. We were all given matching shirts and hats before approximately fifty of my coworkers and I boarded the bus. There was a buzz of excitement on the bus for the ride from Accra to Ho. The bus ride took us about five hours and we arrived at about 8:00 pm in the darkness of the Volta region. We checked into our hotel rooms after grabbing a quick bite to eat.

The next morning I walked to the Polytechnic, where the celebrations were being held, with a group of colleagues. Ho is a relatively small city and the Volta region is known for being very lush and green. The walk to the Polytechnic made this apparent.

The Credit Union Day celebrations started off with a dance crew entertaining the crowd as they trickled in. The crowd of three or four hundred was made up of members of the credit union movement of Ghana, representing every kind of credit union movement member from every region of the country. There were board members, employees, management, and everything else involved with credit unions. The celebrations started off with an opening prayer. The MC asked the audience if anybody felt moved by the spirit and wanted to give a blessing for the festivities. Several audience members offered to speak. The MC chose one of the volunteers and he stood up and gave thanks and spoke his piece on the gathering. After the prayer several special dignitaries were introduced and asked to give a brief word. People spoke about the UN declaration of the International Year of Co-operatives and the value of the co-op model to places like Ghana. It was really interesting to hear leaders in the developing world speak about the value of co-ops in development.

As the day rolled on, representatives from the Credit Union Association of Ghana spoke about current issues in the credit union movement. There were discussions on the problems with high delinquency rates and new exciting software that CUA has made available to credit unions. After every few speakers there would be a short break from the ceremonies for more music and more dancing.

 

 

As I rode back to Accra on the bus I thought to myself “these are the people who make the co-operative movement in Ghana possible.” The credit union movement in Ghana, and in Africa in general, is growing and only now finding its feet. The International Year of Co-operatives has been celebrating the role of credit unions and is helping the people of the developing world discover economic freedom. I strongly feel that the Credit Union Association of Ghana is helping people find their own economic freedom.

-Joel

 

Experiencing Ghana

October 14th, 2012

I’ve officially been in Ghana for one month.

I spent the last week traveling the Central Region and the Western Region of Ghana by pickup truck, visiting senior high schools and credit unions. Travelling the back roads of Ghana by pick-up is nothing like traveling back roads in Nova Scotia. The back roads in Ghana are more like the test track that they show 4x4 trucks running on advertisements for Ford. It’s something of a “Man vs. Nature” endurance test.

Ernest and I arrived in Takoradi (Western Region) with our driver Sammy after our vigorous drive through the breathtakingly beautiful countryside. We spent the night in a nice little motel outside of the town core.

The next morning we travelled into town to talk to the management at the local credit union about joining us for a Youth Savings Club recruitment session at one of the local high schools. Standing in front of thousands of students, in a speakers’ panel consisting of the credit union manager and the head mistress of the school was more than a little intimidating. I told the students about my own personal savings and how I worked through high school in order to pay for my university tuition. During university, I also worked in order to supplement the tuition as much as possible. I left the auditorium with a sense of pride that I could possibly impact a handful of students to think about the possibility of saving for post-secondary education or for possibly starting their own business.

During the afternoon, Ernest and I travelled from Takoradi to the neighboring town of Adiembra. In Adiembra, Ernest and I ran an intensive entrepreneurship training session. The session involved teaching the kids about the principles of marketing, explaining the differences between the business structures that companies use (Sole-Proprietorship, Partnership, Corporation and Co-operative), and a few other things that I hope will inspire them to start thinking about owning their own business after they’ve finished school. After the session was over, the students demanded that there be a photo session. All the students gathered around and encouraged me to stand in the center of the group for the photo. After the group shot was taken about fifteen of the students lined up to each take an individual picture with me. During this process I was proposed to by approximately three teenage girls. The girls would come up to me, pose for a picture and then say, “White man, I will marry you,” and then laugh and walk away joking with their friends.

After a solid week of traveling from town to town (Bompeh, Komenda, Etc.) over roads that were designed for adventurous off-roaders, we finally arrived back in Accra. After four days of going to schools, telling the kids about the value of owning their own business and the pride you can find in entrepreneurship, I arrived back at my apartment.

-Joel

Landing in Ghana

September 20th, 2012

"For the last ten days I have been acclimatizing myself to Ghanaian weather, Ghanaian culture and Ghanaian food. The last week has been pretty crazy with starting a new job in a new city, in a new country, on a new continent.

There were four of us travelling together out of Ottawa, through Toronto and Amsterdam to Ghana. We arrived at the Accra airport at about 8pm and waited in line at the security gate for about an hour. After picking up our luggage and jumping through all the hoops, we went to the exit and were greeted by representatives of the two organizations that we’re working with, CUA and SEND. The two interns that are going to be working in the northern part of Ghana left us to stay in a hotel for the week. My colleague and I were picked up by two employees of CUA (Ernest and Clara) and a driver (George).

They took us to our apartment and talked to the landlord for a bit on our behalf making sure we had the proper accommodations. The rooms are modest, but they have air conditioning and an electrical outlet and somewhere to rest my head.

Joel's Apartment in Accra, Ghana

The next day we were picked up by one of the drivers from the Credit Union Association of Ghana. Ernest, the project officer for Youth Savings who I will be working with, gave us a tour of the office and we had the chance to meet everybody. For lunch, Ernest took us to a local restaurant where I had chicken and rice which was fairly similar to food back home. During the afternoon Ernest took us out to get cell phones.

On Tuesday I met with Ernest for a while and talked about what the Youth Savings Program is and what we’re going to be doing. The Youth Savings Program at CUA is a very interesting program that has been running for over a decade now. The program helps and promotes existing and new Youth Savings Clubs that operate in schools and credit unions all over Ghana. Youth Savings Clubs are groups of young people who band together to pool their modest resources and develop savings which they put towards their post-secondary education, starting their own business or opening an account with a credit union. The youth savings program is teaching the next generation leadership skills, financial literacy skills and self-management skills.

Credit unions’ membership in Ghana is aging and young people don’t currently know about credit unions. So the Youth Savings program is a way to both teach them about proper savings as well as introducing them to the credit union. We’re going to be travelling to schools, churches and credit unions all over Ghana working with youth and credit unions.

View from Joel's Office, Accra

On Thursday my colleague and I had the privilege of meeting with all of the department heads and managers to discuss their part of the organization. At CUA, there are many different moving parts that benefit the Ghanaian credit unions and the Ghanaian people in many different ways.

Ernest, the project officer for Youth Savings, and I are currently working on a one-day workshop for high school students who are interested in entrepreneurship. We will be speaking with a group of ambitious young Ghanaians who have an interest in business. We will be teaching them about how to start a business, financial responsibility, and how to draft a business plan.

I’m very anxious to start working in the field and travelling the country. The adventure has just begun."

-Joel

Awaiting Accra, Ghana

Saturday, September 8th

I’m currently sitting in the Toronto Pearson International Airport awaiting a flight to take me overseas to Amsterdam and on from there to Accra, Ghana. The journey is just about to begin, but I feel as though I’ve been on a journey already over the past week.

I’ve spent the last week in Ottawa learning about the Canadian Co-operative Association, the international co-operative movement and what myself and my colleagues will be doing to help CCA and CIDA improve the international movement.

 

Thirteen young interns met in Ottawa on Monday morning on the front step of The Jail Hostel and walked and talked together on their way to the offices of the Canadian Co-operative Association along with our keeper and team leader, Kati. The thirteen of us were well aware that we came from similar educational and experiential backgrounds and knew that the week would be a great opportunity to meet some interesting peers in the field of international development and co-operative development. But we were unaware of the bonds that would be formed in the process.



"The Jail" Hostel

Between last night and this morning, the thirteen of us interns have departed from Ottawa and have begun our journeys around the world to work on projects in a wide variety of communities. Projects that we are working on range from microcredit development programs, to addressing local gender issues, to tourism development. I will be working on a program involving youth savings in Ghana.



Interns in Ottawa, Canada

It’s only now really hitting me that I will be living in Ghana tomorrow and won’t be seeing Sydney for another six months.

 

-Joel

Meet Joel

 "I’m quite excited to experience a part of the world that I have only read about in bits and pieces" -Joel






"I am highly involved with my community. I am currently the vice-chair of Cape Breton’s Habitat for Humanity project. I have been involved with Habitat for Humanity for the last three years. I have been involved with Caper Radio for the last few years. As a part of that I have been heavily involved with promoting local music and arts including helping Caper Radio revive Gobblefest, an independent music festival in Sydney.

In 2010 I graduated from Cape Breton University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. I am currently completing work related to my studies in the Master of Business Administration in Community Economic Development at CBU. Through the MBA program, I have undertaken research involving credit unions and the development of the cooperative sector. Through this research and other research projects, I have presented papers in Montreal and in Halifax.

 

I will be leaving Sydney to go to Ottawa for training with the CCA on September the 2nd. After that I will be leaving for Accra, Ghana on the 8th. I know frighteningly little about Ghana and have only recently stumbled onto this opportunity to spend six months there. I’m quite excited to experience a part of the world that I have only read about in bits and pieces.

 

In Accra, I will be working with the Credit Union Association of Ghana. The CUA operates comparably to Credit Union Central in Atlantic Canada. The CUA coordinates programs to support the development of the community and the economy on various levels.

 

The program that I will be working in is designed to encourage young Ghanaians to get involved with savings programs, get involved in credit unions, and get involved within their communities. I’m very excited to see the development of the cooperative sector by means of working kids who live in a vastly different scenario to that of kids in Cape Breton. The cooperative movement in Ghana is a young movement and it’s highly influenced by organizations like CCA. I’m eager to get involved with the development of this movement."

 

-Joel Inglis, prior to his trip to Ghana.