Bono Regional Director of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Justice Appiah Antwi, says the paternalistic attitude of Ghanaians has made it difficult for his outfit to receive funds to support startups.
He explained that most Ghanaians, especially the youth approach MASLOC for financial aid to support their entrepreneurship ventures “and present proposals on specific ventures to you but they all end up using the money for different things.”
Citing a personal experience, Justice Appiah in an interview with Sefah-Danquah on the Happy Morning Show noted, “I knew this person who could really sew African print and I even recommended some other people to him. We decided to support him with funds from MASLOC and asked him to take on some people to train. He agreed but in the middle somewhere he did not use the money for the intended purpose and those who were picked to be trained by him also did not show any seriousness to learn.”
According to him, successive governments have introduced policies to support the youth who ventured into entrepreneurship but “they’ve not shown any seriousness. If they were really serious in working and starting up their own businesses, then government can increase funding for MASLOC at the end of the day.”
He admitted that some beneficiaries of MASLOC loans refuse to repay their debts and that also makes it difficult for his outfit to support young and enterprising well-meaning Ghanaians. “Although we undertake monitoring exercises which help us to recover some of the money, we sometimes cannot even trace the whereabouts of some of these beneficiaries after taking MASLOC loans.”
MASLOC provides micro and small loans for start-ups and small businesses with fast, easy and accessible microcredit and small loans to grow and expand their businesses as well as to enhance job and wealth creation.
They are committed to growing and developing small and micro businesses through the provision of sustainable microfinance, small loans and business services to Ghanaian entrepreneurs.
Background
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has urged fresh graduates from the various tertiary institutions to find innovative ways of becoming entrepreneurs.
According to him, that is the only way the rising unemployment rate in the country can be reduced.
He said it will help reduce the over-reliance on the government for jobs, and also reduce the burden on the government’s payroll.
Speaking at the Springboard Youth Dialogues, Mr. Ofori-Atta explained that 60% of Ghana’s revenue is spent every month on the payment of salaries of public sector workers.
“That payroll is full because we are spending some 60% of our revenue on remunerating some 650,000 people. That is not sustainable.”
He told the graduating students that: “…You have the skills set to be able to do what you have to do. Our responsibility as a government is to create the environment and the macro stability, currency stability and ensure that you have access to the relevant skills and financing.”
