Micro-finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) Ghana on warpath: seeks assistance from Serious Fraud Office
March 23, 2010 by Microfinance Africa
From Graphic Business.
Officials of the Micro-finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), which is directly under the Office of the President, are seeking the assistance of the country’s anti-graft agency, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), to help the centre recover more than GH¢80 million owed it by defaulting beneficiaries.
The SFO has also been tasked to impound about 300 VW Parrati vehicles from defaulting beneficiaries of the centre’s taxi scheme.
The list and details of defaulting beneficiaries have consequently been issued to the SFO and district chief executives to help trace beneficiaries, while the legal unit of MASLOC is also instituting legal action against big-time defaulters.
Management of MASLOC is also getting agents who will help it identify run-away beneficiaries and receive five per cent reward on any pesewa recovered based on the agent’s assistance.
Under the micro-finance and small loans scheme, about 300 new VW Parrati taxi cabs, worth more than GH¢15,000 each in 2007, were distributed to beneficiaries across the country to operate transport services and pay in monthly instalments.
But many of those beneficiaries, including those on the taxi scheme, are currently not on the radar of the centre’s recovery plan.
This and other unregulated spending of poverty-related funds and improper appraisal of projects before disbursements are threatening to cripple the otherwise viable programme, which is meant to remove the financial bottlenecks of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).
The Chief Executive Officer of the centre, Mrs Bertha Ansah-Djan, insists that banks, especially rural banks, are still holding on to (MASLOC) funds.
Unregulated granting of poverty related funds at the centre, improper appraisal of projects before granting of facilities, granting of huge sums of loans to the managers of the fund and low recovering rate for the facilities extended to clients have virtually made the fund to go bankrupt.
The centre again is equally battling with the recovery of over GH¢800,000 of various loans which officials of the centre had allocated to themselves. It is also a fact that about 33 former and current employees of the centre are neck deep in these financial transactions that have nearly depleted what is meant to support SMEs.
According to available records these former and current employees of the centre alone granted to themselves between GH¢2,500 and GH¢70,000 to be repaid over a four-year period, which is not the normal convention for repayment of loans granted by the centre.
According to her, some monies disbursed through the banks under the small loans scheme and which could not be accessed by intended beneficiaries were still lodging with the banks. “We will soon start going after those banks that still hold our monies, especially the rural banks and other banks we do business with,” Mrs Ansah Djan warned.
“We have no choice but to go after them and we expect that as good corporate citizens, they will return our monies to us,” she said.
She alleged that “some of the banks are doing business with MASLOC funds and until they get enough profits they will not refund our monies to us.”
Mrs Ansah-Gyan said what was more worrying was lack of information and data on loan beneficiaries, which she said was making the loan recovery very difficult.
Currently the Auditor-General has begun auditing the accounts of the centre in order to plug the loop holes and know the exact amount of monies unaccounted for since the establishment of the centre in 2006.
The CEO was however convinced that, with support from government, the centre would function fully in the coming months.
“Already, we have started processing applications for loan disbursement which, will begin by the end of March this year”. “With the help we are getting from government, this organisation will not be crippled, we are going to rise to the occasion and ensure that we assist small businesses with funding so that they grow to create employment for the teeming masses of the country’s youth”, she said. “With the little we have, we can start doing something until we are able to recover about 80 per cent of our debts”.
Mrs Ansah Djan admitted the centre had fallen into the present quagmire because of the lack of application of the best business practices in its investment drive overtime.
“We have to be careful this time round, so that we do not fall into the same problem the previous administrators fell into,” she cautioned.
Among the measures she is instituting into the administration of the centre’s loan disbursement is the implementation of software that will track all applicants and beneficiaries of the centre’s facilities, while the face of the application forms had also been changed to capture more information on beneficiaries.
Employees of the centre are also undergoing training and an aptitude test to ensure that they qualify to be credit officers.
In addition to the establishment of a complete audit deportment at MASLOC, the management of the centre has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the various commercial banks so that those banks will have more responsibility to assess the viability of a business loan.
“This time we will concentrate on the micro enterprises schemes because we are still recovering those already disbursed that will enable us process loans for medium scale enterprises”, she said.
The Micro-finance and Small loans Centre faces the threat of imminent collapse because of its low recovery rate from previous beneficiaries, some of whom are currently on the run.
But the CEO believes, for the centre to be relevant in the contemporary age of Microfinance proliferation, her outfit had to be depoliticized.
According to the instrument establishing the centre, before a person qualifies for the highest amount of GH¢25,OOO, that person must have established a high level of credit worthiness and proven track record of good loan repayment in the previous years. Under the scheme, the maximum repayment period is up to 24 months.
However, the most common tenure of the facility is 12 months, which is applicable mainly to commerce; with one to three months moratorium, depending on the nature of the project.
Microfinance is one of the tools that the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS 1 & 11) believed could act as impetus to supporting the private sector, which is seen as an engine of economic growth and stemming poverty.
Access to sustainable financial services is increasingly considered as a critical component of poverty reduction efforts.
It was therefore crucial that the government found alternative and sustainable means of providing the needed accelerated access to credit to a larger segment of the productive but vulnerable sections of the population within reasonable period.
Before the establishment of MASLOC, the government had initiated a microcredit scheme in 2001 in order to address the extremely wide credit gap between the commercial and rural banks. This was managed by various ministries, departments and agencies on the basis of their pro-poor programmes.
The scheme was later developed and named the microcredit programme and the microcredit and small scheme, which has now metamorphosed into the Microcredit and loans Centre (MASlOC).
The inauguration of the centre in 2006 was accompanied by a steady drumbeat of optimism about the scheme’s potential to lift the many poor from the doldrums of poverty.
But unfortunately this has not been the case, instead, the centre has been used as a gorgeous bride, with a glittering dowry of cash, courted by swooning politicians.
car insurance Financial Executive Scott Gelbard
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Dear MASLOC,
We are an environmental NGO operating in Ghana. We want collaboration with
your organisation in area funding of our activities and other forms of assistance.
Below is a brief profile of Darsfield EarthCare & Farm-Tech Foundation
(darsfoundation)
The community – based projects (farmers based organisation-FBO, ) and assistance of association of
farmers’ base organisation in the rural community with farm inputs,
finance and access to markets.
This project has been established in fifteen communities in Volta
Region and two communities in Eastern Region of Ghana, by the Darsfield
EarthCare & Farm- Tech Foundation (Darsfoundation).
Our primary interest is with women society and the youth is rural communities.
We want you to partner with our farmers associations (CBO & FBO) or invest in our farmers as a potential investors and sponsor. Currently, we want our
community to acquire fish cages for farming in riverine areas, trainings
has been intense but seeking for financial partners to assist them with fish- cage for fish farming.
We started micro financing programs in Darsfoundation only a few months
ago to rural farmers in carryout their farming activities to produce bumper harvest.
The objective of Darsfoundation is to assist as many farmers’
association with farm inputs and capital resources to produce bumper
foodstuffs for storage and processing in our catchments area.
It is expected that these projects will reduce unhealthy dependence on
natural forest resources, aquaculture, provide employment, reduce crime
and increase the socio-economic status of the communities, develop
hidden talents in our youths into taking the opportunities that abound
in natural resources, sustainable agriculture initiatives.
We want you to visit our website; check www. darsfoundationgh.org and
email address; info@darsfoundationgh.org, darsfoundation@aol.com or interact with us on facebook/ Kwashie Darkudzi.
We hope our application would meet your kindest consideration and
approval.
Thank you
Kwashie Darkudzi
(Admin. & Operations Director)
i think masloc is doing well in general but should properly appraise clients before disbursing funds to them because ,if people keeps on defaulting, the survival of the organisation will be shaky and eventually may collapse which should it happen would be a big blow to the active poor in the future which masloc could have assisted for a better life and a better ghana in general.
Madam, I am seriously sorry you have to bear the brunt of someone else’s mistake. You must be strong, but strength alone cant put you back on track. You need to take crucial informed decisions and steps to implement the decisions. I will suggest you use some of your money to get technical service providers with undisputable track record especially in building implementors capacity to do credible group-based programs, to train your staff and ensure that they are doing a good job through rigorous on-site and off-site monitoring. Good that you have got an audit unit in place, let them help you to put an effective internal control system in place. For now staff loans should cease. Your staff should go to their bankers for their credit needs. But I would like to also say that you should not be too ambitious about the recovery rates, because unless you are a stranger in this country, everybody knew that the MASLOG loans were reward loans (what reward? I dont know) and there was nothing like paying back.
where can i find MASLOC?I mean the location???
where can i find MASLOC offices and what do i need to access the loan.
We as Ghanaians, must work hard to maintain, improve and develop the Centre into the large financial institution our Businesses have been dreaming for. This is not going to be easy considering the ‘Political Games’ which bedevils its poist to providing sustainable business finance, hopefully, for the medium and large businesses as well.
We shall not only and merely pursue the defaulters as one enemies of the scheme, but also, some of the politicians who use MASLOC as the ‘Promise Land’ for their financial commitments. They just DO NOT help the scheme, as they do not direct their influences towards the success of the scheme in the long-run.
In this case of MASLOC where Debt-defaulting, as a traditional loaning problem, is intensified by the political motives, we must fight doubly ; because the Only Relief to the Success of the Scheme Tomorrow is on the Double of Today.
MY COMPANY CURRENTLY, NEEDS LOAN FACILITY IN TO RE- LOANED TO ITS CUSTOMERS. THANK YOU.
i want your address. how do i contact you, where are your offices expecially in the ashanti region
Where can I find Masloc offices?.Please give me the direction so that I can visit yoy. Thanks.
I need a car in form of loan. However, i am a staff of a mining company in ghana Brong Ahafo region. Thanks.
Dear Madam,am a taxi driver and as am sending this message to you now i don’t have a car to drive, i saw your advert on tv so decide to look for you
to let you know my problem so please where can i locate your office in takoradi
Last year, I watched your programme on Metro News which says the institution will extend it offices to the district level but up to now I have not seen any branch at the district level. When is it starting? and how will you recruit people into the vacuum that would be created. However, you should be circumspect in considering people’s profile before allowing the person to become a beneficiary otherwise many a number will use fake profile that afterward cannot be traced let alone asking the person to surcharge the loan.
In Takoradi, Registered with pmmc for exporting of gold, I think we will need your services, please what is your requirements.
Thank you.
Director
Jerry Christian
i have a small business that is suffering and i need your help.i am capable of employing others when my business picks up.where can i find MASLOC
Dear madam, i want to run an intercafe and also a transport business now i have rented a store for the internent but it has leftwith the equipment thus the computers and other equpiment. i will be happy if you can help me to access loan from you end.
also i will be happy if you can with you car loan to also start with me transportation business.
i will be happy help me out
thanks
Hi, I need your help, by given me loan for equipments and expanding of my company.
how fast can I get it and what is the procedural for to pass on to get it, because I don’t have your number with me, this is my numbers so please if anything you can flash me. (0302 714406, 024 3561607, 027 1005434)
hoping to hear from you very soon.
thank you
MD of MENSKARO SERVICES
Please sir, i am a police officer station in Accra National Police Hqrs Accra. want to start a smal pig farm and in future bacome a commercial farm. I have already acquire land and mobilization is in place but lack working capital to establish the farm
My farm will be made of both [glasscatter& pigs] pls kindly assist me to take off. i wii be greatfull if direction to your office is given and attention.
My contacts 0207759922
The General Manager
MASLOC
Dear Sir:
APPLICATION FOR LOAN
I have established an Enterprise by name Rangers’ Multimedia Ghana Institution; it is situated at Bubiashie – Atico not far from Darkuman Post Office and in the premises of our residence so in other words hidden from public scene.
Rangers’ Multimedia is a fast growing business in my personal toil and need you to give me assistance in boosting up my service delivery.
I have a plan of reaching out to my dream and I have the aptitude and zeal to accomplish it in terms of productivity but I am in need of funding. I have examined the market for the past six years and realised how profitable it will be with my careful analysis.
I have a need of getting a shop/office for providing services of Graphic Designing, Printing, Tour Guide & Consultancy, Digital Photography and Outdoor Advertisements.
I also need an Instant Photo Printer for a ready market business, which kicks start immediately the Printing Machine comes in and I can start repayment from the next seven days.
The cost of the Instant Photo Printer with its accessories and supplies amounts to GH¢1,000, that is $650 US dollar equivalent.
Renting a shop/office cost about GH¢7,000 and will be very glad to acquire a reasonable office through your assistance. Please let me know if you can help in providing me with any of the two or both. My aim to achieve this plan I entrust solely onto you for support.
Rangers Multimedia is managed by three professionals working in diverse fields of the business, A Graphic Designer, Digital Photographer and a Public Relations Officer. For more about me and the business concerning the loan, I will be ready for any interview at your given time of convenience.
Sincerely
Mr. Daniel Brons Eloh
Graphic Designer
Rangers Multimedia
RMGI
Contact: +233 262812302
Please i will be very glad if you could give your telephone number and your office location.
I want to come to your office but i don’t know your office and the telephone number i got from your documentary is not working properly.
I will be very glad if you could give it to me.
Goodday,
please how do i locate masloc office here in accra thank you
From what i head in the news you are doing very well.
How may i also benefit from your scheme and where?
I have a small poultry and pig farm which l want to expand in other to employ more hands to work on the farm. I therefore wish to apply for financial support to enable me expand the farm. I promise to repay the loan when granted.
I hope to hear from you as soon as possible.
Dear sir /madam ,
I want to run a mini suepermarket business, now i have acquire half plot of land for which very soon i will start the building. Iwill be happy if you can help me to access financial and car loan from your noble institution.
Thank you