Out of 9 million cedis cash loans disbursed by the Microfinance and Small Loans Center (MASLOC) to beneficiaries in the Upper East Region from the year 2017, the centre has recovered just 2 million cedis in cash which represents 21 per cent of the entire figure.
Aside from the 7 million cedis unpaid loans, some beneficiaries who were given products such as urvan buses, salon cars and Isuzu buses to the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) from the region are yet to settle their debts.
This was made known to the media by Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah, the Chief Executive Officer of MASLOC after a stakeholders meeting held in Bolgatanga.
She stated that the recovery level across the country stands at 45 per cent of loans disbursed to beneficiaries. The CEO who appealed to the defaulters to settle the debts for the sustainability of MASLOC added that the centre may be compelled to take legal actions against defaulters if all efforts to retrieve the monies failed.
“Usually, there is a misconception that money taken from MASLOC is government money and it is not supposed to be paid back and some people go to the extent of even saying that once they are NPP and their government is in power and you take money from MASLOC, you don’t [have] to payback. But that is a misconception. We are doing a lot more sensitization and education in that regard. We need to sustain MASLOC.”
According to her, even though some outstanding monies disbursed by the previous regime are yet to be paid in full, the above figures are monies disbursed since the assumption of President Akufo-Addo’s led government up to date.
The CEO who lamented the low recovery level from the Upper East Region admonished the defaulters to pay back the loans to enable others to also benefit to expand their businesses.
“The people of the Upper East Region are very beautiful people and I know they do businesses. They should come to MASLOC for us to support them. MASLOC has the lowest interest rate that you can think of in Ghana. Our interest rate is 12 percent per annum so once they take loans from MASLOC, there is not much burden on them to repay. Once they meet our requirement, we are ready to assist them but when the assistance is given, we expect that they payback”, she indicated.
In order to fully recover monies disbursed out to beneficiaries, Hajia Shanni Zakariah said all regional managers have been given a monthly target to retrieved the locked-up capital.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz
