Majority of residents in Western Region who took Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) loans are defaulting payment. Reports indicate that only 20 percent of the beneficiaries have fully repaid their loans.
According to officials, the retrieved money represents just five percent of the seven million cedis disbursed in the region since 2017.
This even excludes expenditure on hire purchase goods like vehicles, sewing machines and other equipment, the regional MASLOC director, Malek Halek Botwe, told journalists yesterday.
He regretted that some of the beneficiaries had not even repaid a pesewa out of their loans and described them as “zero cases”.
He said such “zero cases” were common in all the 14 Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts in Western Region, with Nzema East and Ellembele topping the list with 223,000 and 136,000 cases respectively.
Non-payment
Mr Botwe described non-payment of disbursed loans as the greatest challenge facing MASLOC, which was established to offer soft loans to vulnerable in the society.
He noted that the beneficiaries were using President Akuffo-Addo’s directive on suspension of repayment during COVID-19 outbreak as an excuse to default, insisting “some of them will only do the needful when the President asks them”.
That notwithstanding, the regional MASLOC boss disclosed some measures, including “deductions from beneficiaries’ salaries by employers, constant reminders and visitations”, had been put in place to reclaim the loans. He said his office had temporarily stopped offering loans to focus on vigorous recovery exercise.
Mr Botwe reminded beneficiaries that MASLOC is a revolving loan scheme with just one or two percent interest rate and failure to repay loans would deny others the opportunity.
He further added that the scheme is not a partisan one offering “freebies” to members of the ruling party and urged them to discard that preconceived idea from their minds.
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