Government is set to allocate GH¢200 million to the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) in 2019, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Ken Ofori Atta announced on Thursday.
Presenting government’s 2019 budget statement to Parliament in Accra, he said the funds would enable MASLOC to continue to support more individuals and groups undertaking small-scale enterprises.
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The Finance Minister noted that for both 2017 and 2018, the Akufo-Addo government tasked MASLOC to focus more on strengthening the capacity of this important financial services centre to manage the funds it controls and disburses rather than expecting more money to be simply thrown at it.
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He stated that this was mainly informed by the unprofessional and wasteful manner that the centre was run before 2017.
After the comprehensive programme, Mr Ofori-Atta said MASLOC which had a very bad recovery rate that made it unsustainable, attained a recovery rate of over 85 percent.
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“We are happy to say that the measures put in place since 2017 are yielding results,” he added.
The only way MASLOC can be sustained, the Finance Minister proposed, is for Ghanaians to respect the culture of paying back what is borrowed.