MTN Ghana has launched an Economic Empowerment Project (EEP) aimed at assisting persons with disabilities to be financially independent.

The company supported 100 physically challenged members of the GFD, with each member receiving seed money of GH¢4000, MTN Mobile Money user-friendly kiosks and phones to start the Mobile Money business.

Speaking at the launch of the EEP at the office of the GFD in Accra, the General Manager of Mobile Money Limited (MML), Eli Hini said the EEP formed part of activities marking the 10th anniversary of MTN Mobile Money and also help persons with disability to establish their own businesses and eke out a better living and not become a burden on society.

According to him, the celebration was to identify and invest in corporate social investment initiatives that would help alleviate the plight of a marginalised group in the country.

MTN Ghana in line with this decided to extend its support to persons living with disability.

The Director of the National Association of the Deaf, Juventus Dourinaah said, “As an organisation of persons with disabilities, we are more concerned about development of all categories of persons with disabilities in educational, social, political and economic lives, the reason for which we embrace the partnership with MTN which has resulted in creating employment for a good number of persons with disabilities,” he said.

The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah in his also said the need to “facilitate the integration of persons living with disabilities into the world of work is non-negotiable.”

The Minister commended MTN Ghana for the project and urged the beneficiaries to manage the businesses well to achieve the objectives for which the EEP was established.