Loan delinquency a challenge to credit unions

Takoradi, Dec. 19, GNA - The non-payment of loans coupled with the high delinquency rate among residents in the Western Region could lead to the collapse of their credit unions.

Mr Thomas K. Mensah, Board Chairman of the Ghana Education Service Regional Office Credit Union (GESRO) disclosed this at the union's 2008 annual general meeting at Takoradi on Friday.

He said some members of the union whose loans deductions are not done at source at the Controller and Accountant General's Department, (CAGD) have also refused to pay by cash.

"This has led to a decline in the income of the union" he noted. Mr Mensah said management of GESRO has written to all the defaulters to resettle their indebtedness without delay or else the Union would be compelled to institute legal actions against them. He said despite the set back, the union made a net surplus of GH¢63,086.07 in 2008 as against GH¢53.031.19 in 2007, with member's shares standing at GH¢180.081.40 this year as against GH¢137.162.36 in 2007.

Mr Mensah said the GESRO village project was 85 percent complete and allocation of individual plots would be done on January 10 next year.

He said a total of GH¢36.020 was contributed by members for their plots of land at the GESRO village near Apowa, a suburb of Takoradi. Mr Mensah said the union had opened two new offices in Takoradi and Tarkwa and would soon open another branch at Daboase. Mr Emmanuel O. Darko, General Manager of Credit Unions Association (CUA) said savings was a very painful yet fruitful venture and urged Ghanaians to patronize it.

He said poverty reduction could only be eliminated if the people were encouraged to save, manage their resources properly and invest for the future.

Mr Darko cautioned Ghanaians not to rush in for all types of loans that organizations and institutions offer them. "You need to calculate the interest rate and other conditions attached to the loans before you accept it" he advised. He reminded Ghanaians that their retirement was eminent and that they must plan towards it now, to save them from deprivation in their old age.