Susu Association Registers 400 Operators

The Ghana Co-operative Susu Collectors Association (GCSCA) has so far registered 400 individuals and institutional susu operators, four months to the end of the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG’s) January 1, 2012 deadline for susu collectors to register under the association or risk being closed down.

The quest by the GCSCA, the umbrella body of susu collectors in the country, follows a directive from the BoG under its new operating rules and guidelines for microfinance institution to register with their respective association to enable them get operational license from the bank.

The Acting General Secretary of GCSCA, Mr Obed Yaw Asamany, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that the 400 registered members are currently being screened, after which they would be issued with BoG licenses under the new guidelines.

“The association has completed conducting due diligence on 200 applicants so far and will be forwarding that list to BoG for licensing” he said.

Mr Asamany admitted that although the registered members fell below the industry figure, he said his outfit was optimistic that more members would be registered by the end of the second quarter of 2012.

On what the association was doing to get more members registered, the acting president said GCSCA had instructed all its registered members across the country to report any unregistered susu operator operating within their defined geographical area to their executives in the districts.

The district executives, he said, would subsequently report these unregistered operators to the BoG for the appropriate action to be taken.

He said the association was also conducting several media campaigns to sensitise both susu operators and the general public to the implications of not registering, which meant not having a BoG license to operate.

“Now, it is our responsibility to make sure that all susu operators are registered. In that direction, the association is positioning itself to be more visible and attracted to all susu operators,” he said.

Some of the measures, he said the association was using to check the operations of illegal operators included standardisation of all documentation materials being used by susu collectors across the country.

According to him, this single initiative will compel all non registered susu collectors to register with the association since clients will not patronise the activities of non registered susu operators.

Also, the association had requested the banking supervision department of Bank of Ghana to conduct an inspection of operating license exercise nationwide to enforce the operating rules issued in July 2011.

Mr Asamany added that the BoG had not given any indications to extend the registration date and further called on all susu collectors nationwide to endeavour to register with the association to forestall any future consequences on their operations.

He also reminded all susu operators who are yet to register with the association that mobilising deposit in the form of susu without the requisite license is an offence under the Non Bank financial Institution Act, 2008 (Act 774) and the banking Act, 2004 ( Act,673).