A group of market women, in the Koforidua municipality, have expressed their unhappiness about the way the Eastern regional office, of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), was running the day-to-day affairs of the Koforidua office. According to the furious market women, officers in charge of the Koforidua office have politicised the exercise, as well as exhibited broad daylight discrimination, tribalism, nepotism and favouritism. They made the disclosure, to the Chronicle on Saturday in an interview, during the group’s visit to the Koforidua office last Thursday. They explained that the officers give huge sums of money, ranging from GHc5,000 to GHc10,000 to individuals or groups which identified with the NPP, and GHc20 to GHc2,000 to non-party members. They argued that they were all Ghanaians, hence must have equal share of the national cake rather than trying to rob Peter to pay Paul. The angry group continued that the practice of partisanship, tribalism, nepotism and favouritism, if not checked immediately, would undermine the progress of the country. According to them, such acts only hold the tendency to destroy the peaceful fabric of Ghanaians, leading to instability, since the cheated group would not feel happy and comfortable. They have therefore called on the leaders of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to set up a committee to immediately investigate the matter in order to ensure equity, before they laughed at the wrong side of their mouth come the December elections. Even though they mentioned that the NPP administration had ensured accelerated development, they would not hesitate to vote against the party in the forth-coming general elections, if their needs are not met. But the Eastern Regional Co-ordinator of the programme, Mr. Dominic Baah-Ayim, denied the allegations in an interview with the Chronicle. According to him the concept of the programme was to promote and enhance local business, especially those into Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and therefore did not see any reason why some people would be prevented on the pretext of not being a party member. Even though he admitted that such attitudes existed in every human institution, his outfit had exhibited a high level of professionalism when it came to the disbursement. He called on Ghanaians to exercise restraint since every new programme came along with some teething problems. Mr. Baah-Ayim further appealed to Ghanaians, to eschew blackmailing and negative criticism, which would only lead to underdevelopment. The branch has disbursed over GHc1.3 million since the inception of the programme. Source: The Chronicle