The Central Regional Manager for the Microfinance and Small Loans Center, (MASLOC), Anthony Sackey has bemoaned the high non-performing loans the centre is recording in the region.
MASLOC is a microfinance apex body responsible for implementing the Government of Ghana’s (GoG) microfinance programmes targeted at reducing poverty.
Out of GHC10, 780, 300 funds disbursed to over 11,000 customers within the central region over the thirteen years of the roll out of the intervention, GHS 9 million out of the sum is yet to be recovered.
According to Mr. Sackey, the Centre has been battling the recovery of such outstanding monies since 2007.
“We have been operating since 2007 and there are records that show that some individuals under the previous administration failed to honor their debt obligations to the agency therefore those who also get such opportunity think that if those people couldn’t pay, then we are also not going to pay.”
On ATLFM’s Atlantic Wave on Monday, the MASLOC regional manager was optimistic the monies could be retrieved through a devised recovery of engaging clients in a one-on-one. He said he believed the patriotic debtors who would want MASLOC to thrive will do well to pay.
Mr. Sackey mentioned the collapse of the businesses the beneficiaries venture into as the major reason for their inability to repay the loans.
“Because most of them are small businesses, they face series of challenges and some end up collapsing. If you have given a facility of about 1000 Ghana Cedis to an individual who goes into selling of boiled eggs or water and the business is not thriving or not able to pay, what do you do?”
Mr. Sackey also dismissed claims of MASLOC’s loans being a political loan hence, the agency’s inability to apply the necessary strategies to recover the monies.
“We are not compelled to use force on these people and that is why people read meanings that MASLOC loans are political loans which is not so. Our target groups are people below the poverty line and most of them are unable to pay.”
Nyordi Pouliwe/ATLFMNEWS
