The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) has identified a major setback of her outfit, as the fact that beneficiaries of loan facilities refuse to repay.

Speaking on the Super Morning Show, on Wednesday, February 23, 2022, Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah, said out of a total GH₵204 million disbursed funds, MASLOC has been able to retrieve about 45%. This rate, according to her, is not encouraging.

"In the past few days, I've been going around the southern sector and my worry has been low recovery rate. Out of the GH₵204 million disbursed, we have been able to collect GH₵90 million, which is about 45%. But any meaningful microfinance institution should be doing around 80% recovery," she said.

Her comment was part of discussions that centered on the poor recovery of loans by the company, following news reports that only 10% of unpaid loans by beneficiaries in the Volta and Oti regions have been recovered.

During the show, however, she clarified that the recovery rate in the Volta Region is 11% while the Oti region is doing 16%.

She largely blamed the poor recovery of loans on a notion by beneficiaries is that a loan from MASLOC loan is a gift.

"Some people still think taking money from MASLOC is free, which is far from the truth and people do not want to pay back the loans because of this. I think this is deliberate because even before you take the loans, you go through certain processes which tell you that it is not for free," she said.

“Some people even say MASLOC is for the party in power which is not the case but these are the realities on the ground and were working towards that misconception," she added.

She stated that her outfit is putting in place measures to put this in check, "We may send demand notices and if those ones fail, we may proceed to court," she said.