Article: Micro lenders move centre stage: Ghana's microfinance institutions have now really come into their own, as the informal sector, their main source of business, assumes even greater importance in the national economy. The success of these savings-and-loans outfits is now attracting the interest of the larger, more-established banks. Mark Anthony Kwateng from Accra.(GHANA)

The economic emphasis in Ghana seems to be shifting away from the restrictive poverty eradication agenda and is now angled towards generating domestic economic growth by, among other measures, making it easier for the informal sector to have access to finance.

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This is for very good reasons. The informal sector provides more jobs than the government and the formal private sector combined. Indeed, the biggest slice of the country's economic pie is largely accounted for by 'table-top' traders, street hawkers, small-scale farmers and many other small businesses which operate on the blind side of government statistics.

It is ...

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