Non-payment of MASLOC staff affects loan recovery

Wa, July 17, GNA - Sixteen Financial Extension Agents (FEAs) of the Micro-Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) responsible for the recovery of loans, in the Upper West Region, have not received their salaries for the past eleven months.

The situation is undermining their zeal and ability to go round the communities to retrieve monies owed to the centre by the defaulters, Mr. Simon Yiryel, Upper West Regional Coordinator of MASLOC, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview at Wa.

He said the beneficiaries of the loans were scattered across the various communities in the region and because the agents had not been paid their emoluments for almost one year they were reluctant to use their own resources to track them.

Mr. Yiryel said apart from the Disaster Victims Support credit, two other types of loans namely, smaller loans and micro-credits, amounting to about GHC600,000 was disbursed to groups and individuals in the region.

He, however, said the rate of recovery was encouraging and had the confidence in the ability of these personnel to retrieve substantial amounts of the loans if they were motivated through the regular payment of their salaries.

Apart from the FEAs, he said, other staff of his outfit, were receiving their salaries regularly.