‘Kwaku Ananse’ government cannot be trusted to retrieve debts owed MASLOC – Kusi Boafo

A Policy Analyst and Lecturer with the Kumasi Technical University (KTU) Kusi Boafo has indicated that Ghanaians will be disillusioned if the nation trusts in the commitment of the Akufo-Addo’s government to retrieve all debts owed the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) because of the partisan stakes involved.

According to Mr Boafo, the institution established to offer concessional loans to small and medium enterprises and viable business start-ups is saddled with a hundred and thirty five million cedis of bad debts.

“The loans they are saying are all bad, it’s not that the people do not exist but it’s because the people are wearing political colours just like the person asking them to pay. If you ask Kwaku Ananse to go and catch Ntekuma, for wrong doing, it will come to not. And so they are just playing a certain kind of Ananse game with us and they must be very very serious,” Mr Kusi Boafo fumed.

Speaking to Ultimate News’ Ivan Heathcote – Fumador, Mr Boafo lamented that a huge chunk of the company’s unrecovered loans consists of monies siphoned by successive governments to buy votes during elections.

“MASLOC has been abused and when it is getting to an election, that is where the political parties get money. All the monies routed through MASLOC, most of them, definitely go into areas that are meant for vote harvesting,” he pointed out.

“135 million is the huge indebtedness people owe MASLOC. It is more than the debt profile of three four banks put together. It is a whole banking institution that has collapsed under huge non recovery of loans. How can you tell me that you disbursed three hundred million and about 135 million has gone bad? Then you are a worse administrator and you can’t do this in a private bank,” he said.

Mr Kusi expressed fear that Ghanaians linked to opposition parties will find themselves in a disadvantageous position securing loans from MASLOC.

“The mindset is that now the NPP is in power, about ninety percent of people who will succeed in getting assistance may come from the NPP. Assuming you have a running business that may still need MASLOC assistance, and you go there and your party is no longer in power, then you are back to square one,” he lamented.

He insisted that MASLOC had failed to deliver on its core mandate and will continue on a downward spiral if its operations are not reviewed.