TAMALE HOLDS PUBLIC FORUM ON TEACHERS' FUND (PAGE 40)

THE Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has held a public lecture in Tamale to mark the 10th anniversary of the Teachers’ Fund.
Other activities outlined for the anniversary included radio discussions and clean-up campaigns.
The fund was established in 1999 by the GNAT to, among other objectives, serve as a retirement supplement scheme for teachers who are members of the association.
Addressing the lecture, the administrator of the fund, Mrs Rosalyn Darkwa, assured teachers that they would soon own affordable houses.
She stated that the management of the fund was exploring ways of collaborating with some mortgage financing institutions and the government’s affordable housing initiatives to enable teachers to own their houses.
That measure, she said, was part of the fund’s five-year strategic plan.
Mrs Darkwa announced that since the establishment of the fund, a total of GH¢31.18 million had been disbursed as loans to contributors.
She further stated that so far over 107,000 contributors had benefited from the loan facilities granted under the fund.
Mrs Darkwa said the fund had set up a finance house as a subsidiary of the teachers fund to offer loans to salaried workers and businesses in the private and public sector, adding “This is the initial step towards the establishment of a bank.”
According to her, under the fund’s five-year strategic plan, a formidable financial institution committed to making life more meaningful for teachers was being looked at.
“The fund has come a long way from days of struggling to create awareness among its membership through to situations of insufficient resources to fully meet the needs of over 150,000 regular contributors,” the administrator noted.
The Northern Regional Vice- Chairperson of GNAT, Mrs Christiana Asigri, observed that the fund had changed the lifestyles of many teachers and for that matter “teachers’ image in the eyes of the public.”
She urged custodians of the fund to be “good shepherds without which we would be assured of a gloomy and uncertain future.”
The National Vice-President of GNAT, Madam Portia Molly Anafo, announced that the northern zonal secretariat of the fund had been established to take charge of operations in the three northern regions, including processing of membership registration, loans, exit and retirement benefits, death and disability insurance claims.
“The zonal secretariat will not take over the functions of the District GNAT secretaries but rather enhance their operations with respect to the Teachers’ Fund and Credit Mall Limited,” Madam Anafo stated.