Government To Improve On Domestic Market Efficiency

Hon Minister for Information and National Orientation, Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng (second from right) making a ponit, in the middle is Mr Lawrence Prempeh, CEO of MASLOC The Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Mr. Lawrence Prempeh has said the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) is a move to improve efficiency of the domestic markets.

'In that instance, Market women will have access to the micro-credits and small loans to build their business for economic improvement,' he noted.

He said the MSMEs would not only assist market women but would stimulate private ownership by increasing financial assistance and service delivery. These will be no fore-seable problem because inspectors know the location of every creditor and how they can be tracked for the recovery rate as it applies to the MASLOC loans too, he said.

The Chief Executive of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre was speaking at the 'Meet-the-Press' series held at the Ministry of Information and National Orientation to explain the MASLOC loans for the small scale industries and its importance to the public yesterday.

Mr. Prempeh told reporters that, Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME') either remain small or are unable to expand their full potentials. However, it is in this positive direction that businesses, philanthropists and entrepreneurs are entreated to go for the loans.

The CEO reiterated that, the MSMEs are often labour intensive and therefore it provides more labour per unit of capital. He expressed the optimism that, considering large enterprises, it will be a must for the lives of the people to reform in the national economy to meet the quality standard of living before 2015.

The Hon Minister for Information and National Orientation, Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng, said that, Government has put in place measures to ensure that lives of individuals in the nation change for the better. He, therefore, encouraged the media to embark on impact assessment on the people of Ghana.

He said the media should follow up on the loans from the MASLOC to make a story to tell Ghanaians the impact of the usage of the money and how it has affected lives.

Mr. Lawrence Prempeh expressed continuous estimates of the categories and added that the Micro Category One offers a loan amount of GH¢500 and its approved at the regional level. Individuals can also access the micro-credit category which offers loans between GH¢500 and GH¢1,000 and is approved at the Head Office and the small loans category also offers GH¢10,000 are approved by the Approvals Committee at the Head Office.

The CEO revealed that, pending approvals of the committees, they have already disbursed a total amount of GH¢6.7 million to aid 42,069 beneficiaries through pro-poor schemes of sixteen MDAs. He said MASLOC loans would be based solely on the merits of the application and the credibility of the projects for which the loans are being sought. Through this process, customers are notified to go to the Apex Bank to access the loans for ultimate financial assistants.