MASLOC is non-political — Mrs Tamakloe-Attionu
More than 7,900 traders have benefited from a GH¢3-million loan facility from the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) to support their activities.
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The Chief Executive Officer of MASLOC, Mrs Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu, made this known when she paid a courtesy call on the Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Justice Samuel Agyei, in Sunyani on Wednesday.
Mrs Tamakloe-Attionu was in the region to inspect projects financed by MASLOC and interact with stakeholders of its projects.
According to her, a major challenge facing MASLOC was the perception that it had political linkages.
Status of MASLOC
She said MASLOC remained a non-political institution and called on small-scale businesses, especially market women and taxi drivers, to apply for the facility to expand their businesses for poverty reduction.
Mrs Tamakloe-Attionu said enough education would be undertaken for the public to have indepth understanding of the facility.
She added that the centre’s loan recovery rate was not the best, disclosing that 67 per cent was recorded as account recovery rate for 2013 and entreated beneficiaries to pay back on schedule in order not to be prosecuted.
Mrs Tamakloe-Attionu appealed to the regional coordinating councils (RCCs) to help the centre acquire land for the construction of its regional offices in all the 10 regions, since MASLOC could not continue to operate from rented buildings.
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Support to small scale businesses
Mr Adjei, for his part, commended MASLOC for its operation and support to small-scale businesses in the region and was optimistic that more traders in the region would benefit from the facility.
He noted that the impression being created that the facility was only accessible to people with political linkage had become a major challenge to some political leaders, since people always thronged their offices for assistance to access the facility.
The MASLOC CEO later visited a gari and oil processing factory at Bechem in the Tano South District and the Tanoso Pottery at Tanoso in the Tano North District.
At Bechem, Mrs Ruth Mensah, the Director of Hope Rural Investment, a manufacturer of gari and oil palm, said MASLOC had been of tremendous support to her company and encouraged the public to apply for loans from the establishment.
She was, however not happy about the delay in disbursement after applying for the loan and called for measures to facilitate early disbursement of the facility.