The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) has said that her outfit is accessible to all Ghanaians.

According to Abibata S.M Zakariah, once you have a sound mind and you are between the ages of 18 and 65, you are eligible to access financial support from the institution.

She said this in reaction to the perception that MASLOC grants loans to only New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters.

Speaking on the Super Morning Show on Wednesday, Madam Zakariah said the institution operates with fairness.

“Definitely people will come. You can be a party person; you can be a non-party person. All the people who come to MASLOC are not people that I know. Definitely, some would come that you know them. Others you may not know them. Once they meet the requirements that we are asking for, we don’t care whether you are Party A for Party B, because it is a Ghanaian institution.”

She added that another criterion MASLOC looks for is the viability of the business and their credit worthiness.

“If you come to me for example and say I want an assistance of so, so and so amount. I ask you, what for? But people don’t come to tell us the value. They put it in application. So they would state the purpose for which they want the assistance and then what for.”

Madam Zakariah advised that persons who apply for loans, advice or any financial assistance from MASLOC should be truthful in their application.

She explained that once your application is handed in, a preliminary assessment is undertaken on your business to check whether your application is a true reflection of your business.

"There are times that people come to apply for certain amounts. When you visit their businesses, you’d realise that this person doesn’t have the capacity to have that huge amount that he or she is asking for. So you cut it down."

Discussions on the show were held against the background that Madam Zakariah said in an earlier interview with JoyNews that MASLOC has been able to recover only 10% of unpaid loans by beneficiaries in the Volta and Oti regions.

"Across the country, recovering loans granted to beneficiaries has proven to be difficult. This she said has prevented the Centre from providing others with loans," she said in that interview.

Madam Zakariah therefore urged beneficiaries to repay loans granted them because, "monies recovered from defaulters will enable the Centre to expand."