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Loan delinquency a challenge to credit unions
Takoradi, Dec. 19, Ghanadot/GNA - The non-payment of loans
coupled with the high delinquency rate among residents in
the Western Region could lead to the collapse of their
credit unions.
Mr Thomas K. Mensah, Board Chairman of the Ghana Education
Service Regional Office Credit Union (GESRO) disclosed this
at the union’s 2008 annual general meeting at Takoradi on
Friday.
He said some members of the union whose loans deductions are
not done at source at the Controller and Accountant
General’s Department, (CAGD) have also refused to pay by
cash.
“This has led to a decline in the income of the union” he
noted.
Mr Mensah said management of GESRO has written to all the
defaulters to resettle their indebtedness without delay or
else the Union would be compelled to institute legal actions
against them.
He said despite the set back, the union made a net surplus
of GH¢63,086.07 in 2008 as against GH¢53.031.19 in 2007,
with member’s shares standing at GH¢180.081.40 this year as
against GH¢137.162.36 in 2007.
Mr Mensah said the GESRO village project was 85 percent
complete and allocation of individual plots would be done on
January 10 next year.
He said a total of GH¢36.020 was contributed by members for
their plots of land at the GESRO village near Apowa, a
suburb of Takoradi.
Mr Mensah said the union had opened two new offices in
Takoradi and Tarkwa and would soon open another branch at
Daboase.
Mr Emmanuel O. Darko, General Manager of Credit Unions
Association (CUA) said savings was a very painful yet
fruitful venture and urged Ghanaians to patronize it.
He said poverty reduction could only be eliminated if the
people were encouraged to save, manage their resources
properly and invest for the future.
Mr Darko cautioned Ghanaians not to rush in for all types of
loans that organizations and institutions offer them.
“You need to calculate the interest rate and other
conditions attached to the loans before you accept it” he
advised.
He reminded Ghanaians that their retirement was eminent and
that they must plan towards it now, to save them from
deprivation in their old age.
GNA
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