The Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) was established in 2006, to provide microcredit and small loans to start-ups and small businesses with fast, easy accessibility to grow and expand their businesses.
The idea behind the establishment of the centre is to reach out to as many clients as possible, especially those in the informal sector who are excluded from mainstream banking and unable to access loans and credit from the formal banking sector.
Everyone thought beneficiaries would be guided by this noble objective, especially receiving loans at interest rate of 12 per cent per annum, the lowest in the country, and pay back the loans so that others could be reached.
It is, therefore, worrying that MASLOC is struggling to recover loans amounting to GH¢291,545,925 disbursed since 2008.
What accounts for the recalcitrance of the beneficiaries to repay the loans?
The rumour is that some beneficiaries think MASLOC loans are opportunity for them “to get their share of the national cake”.
After all, they do not see any serious action taken against defaulters over the years except a few court prosecutions whose conclusions are hardly made public.
Even though some district and regional managers and their teams go after defaulters, sometimes calling some of them before chiefs, family heads and other community leaders to warn them, we think they treat them softly, which is one of the reasons for the recalcitrance to repay the loans.
If the repayment period is 12 months but managers start chasing defaulters sometimes after two years, who would care to attach urgency and seriousness to the repayment?
Meanwhile, MASLOC workers continue to draw their salaries, which in itself gives them the tacit encouragement to relax or even renege on their duties.
It is about time the payment of MASLOC workers’ salaries is related to loan retrieval and profit made.
The way out is that the workers should get more serious, particularly the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the managers at all levels.
They should avoid the flimsy and disheartening excuses they give for their decimal or mediocre performance.
We, thus, applaud Dr James Klutse Avedzi, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, for not mincing words in telling the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MASLOC, Paul Sarbeng, when he appeared before the PAC in Accra yesterday that the performance of MASLOC was mediocre.
Why should Mr Sarbeng even get the guts to tell PAC and, for that matter, the public that the outbreak of COVID-19 impacted negatively on businesses, hence their inability to pay back loans.
Can a pandemic breaking out in the country in 2020 be a good basis for not collecting loans outstanding since 2008?
The truth is simply that MASLOC is doing badly and must reassess itself and save its imminent collapse.
Listen to Dr Avedzi talk to MASLOC through Mr Sarbeng: “You have collected only about four per cent of the total amount (that is, outstanding loans since 2008) and that cannot be a job well done. This shows that MASLOC is not doing close to the recovery rate you told us. It is also a clear example that MASLOC is in trouble and you have no funds to operate or meet your mandate.”
