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Minister bemoans the
mismanagement of personal loans
Bunso (E/R), July 5, ghanadot/GNA- Mr Yaw Barimah, Eastern
Regional Minister, has observed that the difficulty in
recovering small loans stemmed from the fact that
beneficiaries of such loans usually mismanaged it.
He explained that since small loans were granted to people
in the informal sector, paying back the loans becomes
difficult because most of the beneficiaries did not put it
into income generating ventures that would enable them to
pay back.
Mr Barimah called on institutions granting small loans to
the informal sector to be interested in the activities of
the beneficiaries by monitoring them and ensuring that the
money is used for the purpose for which it was taken.
Addressing a two-day orientation course for Financial
Extension Assistants (FEA's) recruited under the Micro
Assistance and Small Loans Centre (Masloc) at Bunso on
Thursday, the Minister reminded the participants of
government's commitment to poverty reduction in the country.
The 180 FEA's were drawn from the Volta, Central, Eastern
and the Greater-Accra regions.
He said government had realized the need to create an
opportunity for the informal sector to have access to
business capitals in the form of small loans, hence the
establishment of the Masloc to strengthen the objectives of
poverty reduction in the country.
Mr Barimah called on the public to be vigilant in reporting
persons whose activities were undermining the credibility of
the programme to ensure that the purpose of the scheme was
achieved.
He cited an instance where he personally had to intervene to
stop some people from defrauding innocent people under the
pretext of granting loans to them under the masloc.
The Chief Executive of Masloc, Dr John Agyekumhene said the
aim of the masloc was to provide banking service to the poor
who had no access to the banks and urged the FEA's to carry
the service closer to the needy people.
He advised the trainees to justify the confidence reposed in
them by working hard, adding that their performances would
guarantee a renewal of their yearly contracts.
Dr Agyekumhnene cautioned that Masloc would deal with any
FEA's whose activities undermine the objective of the
programme.
On his part, the Eastern Regional Coordinator of the Masloc,
Mr. Dominic Baah-Ayim, said their operations were purposely
for the poor since loans granted required no collateral.
He said the participants were taken through, the mandate and
objectives of masloc, group dynamics and eligibility and
functions of the FEA's for the success of the programme.
GNA-
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