An international organization is providing business opportunities for women around the world, specifically to those living in poverty.
Opportunity International aims to provide financial solutions and training by empowering people living in poverty to transform their lives, their children’s futures, and their communities.
The organization uses a finance mechanism referred to as microfinance, which is a type of banking service that is provided to unemployed or low-income individuals or groups who otherwise have no other access to financial services.
Their vision is to serve the entrepreneurial port in the developing world through holistic microfinance, which includes providing access to safe and affordable financing, savings accounts, micro insurance and training.
Jannalee Anderson is the Vice President of Business Development for Opportunity Canada, and explained the importance of pouring into women. “It is a global statistic that if women are poured into, they will then pour into their families.” She continued to explain that when we choose to invest in women, their businesses grow and they bring almost 100% of their profits back into their families. This translates into improved food and water, as well as the ability to send their children to school, which impacts the next generation. “Investing into women literally changes not only the families and their communities, but also the next generation.”
Opportunity Canada has two implementing partners in Ghana, one of them being Sinapi Aba Trust Savings & Loans. The company was started to bring financial inclusion, transformational services, empowering growth, and hope to many Ghanaians. Joyce Owusu-Dabo is the Chief Programmes Officer at Sinapi Aba and explained the meaning behind the company’s name. “Sinapi Aba translates to mustard seed. When a mustard seed is planted, it becomes the biggest tree and the birds of the earth come and feed off it. As an institution, we are supporting the small enterprises and so when they invest in their business, their business will grow, just like the tree.”
Opportunity International served nearly one and a half million women in more than 20 developing countries last year alone.
