MASLOC beneficiaries warned against impostors
The Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Scheme (MASLOC), Mr. Lawrence Akwasi Prempeh has urged Ghanaians who want to access the loan to be very vigilant and not fall prey to impostors He indicated that there were some impostors who were going round collecting monies from people with the assurance to assist them acquire the loans.
“These people are not from the firm, they are fraudsters,” he warned.
He made this known during the over view of the scheme in Accra yesterday.
Mr. Prempeh said the doors to MASLOC were open to every citizen in the country to help them establish and expand their businesses, and that MASLOC was established to serve as a fiduciary agency of government for the prudent and judicious management of government's micro and small scale credit programmes to reduce poverty.
Explaining the requirements needed in accessing the loan, he said MASLOC portfolios have two components, namely micro credit and small loans.
To qualify for the micro credit, he said only applicants that have organized themselves into groups or cooperatives are eligible, such groups should number between five and twenty five people. He added that applicants may later apply as individual or as cooperatives.
He further revealed that so far the scheme has been able to disburse a total amount of GH˘29.6 million in small loans and micro-credit to over 84,000 beneficiaries across the country, and a total of GH˘54 million in applications have been approved, pending disbursements to over 130,000 beneficiaries.
According to him, the scheme have also disbursed a total amount of GH˘6.7 million to support 42,069beneficiaries through pro poor schemes of sixteen Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDA) and some private Micro Finance groups.
He further added that the scheme's Business Services Department would roll out programs to provide capacity building services in basic business practices for beneficiaries of the MASLOC loans across the country to ensure that beneficiaries of the scheme were empowered to succeed in their economic ventures.
“We are working with the marginaliSed segments of the society to improve their economic circumstances” he stressed.
He further urged beneficiaries to make it a point to pay back the loan when the time is due, to help others to also have access to the scheme. He also urged Financial Institutions to reduce their interest rates to allow individuals to access loans from them in order to help eradicate poverty.
Source: Charity Addo - Ghanaian Chronicle
