MASLOC Goes Paperless
The Microfinance and Small Loan Centre (MASLOC) has begun processes to go paperless nationwide for efficiency and effectiveness.
This means that every loan application, disbursement and repayment, henceforth, will be done digitally, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the centre,HajiaAbibata Shani Mahama, has said.
“Our training this morning is on our digitalization process. I have said before that MASLOC is going digital and this training, as you have seen our staff here, we are set to go. We are doing the internal processes and then we are going to roll it out nationwide.
“From our loan processes to disbursements everything is going to be paperless. Everything that we do at MASLOC, currently, we are going digital on that in terms of paperwork,” CEO stated.
According to her, “We are doing paperless from application to disbursement, everything that you need, we are going to have it on our platform in terms of approvals and other things, we sit at the head offices and then we do our approvals.”
The MASLOC boss made these remarks during a two-day training workshop for staff in Accra last Wednesday, October 5, for its nationwide digitalization rollout. The training was financed through funds secured from the Africa Development Bank (AfDB).
The participants, who were drawn from MASLOC’s offices across the country, were trained at the Accra Digital Centre.
Speaking on the sidelines of the training, Hajia Mahama said migrating digitally is the best way, especially in this ever-changing world,and added that it is even easier in this regard as against sticking to the old way of doing things.
She said the Mobile Money platform will be the means through which beneficiaries, after securing loans, will be made to resettle their debts.
Hajia Mahama assured that the staff will be equipped with the necessary skills and training,and will be available nationwide to assist applicants who are not technology savvy.
“I think that that will be much easier, instead of going physical visit, these days we have MOMO and other things and so if it is digital, it is even better for us, because, before people take loans and everything, all of these will be put into consideration in the integration and so from disbursement to repaymentiIt is going to be digital.
“So, it is not going to be difficult, but rather make it easier for us, because we have POS in the districts, we are going to provide them with all of those things and so people, our mothers and fathers who will have challenges with those things can visit our district or regional offices for them to put them through,” she explained.
Meanwhile, the CEO of MASLOC has said repayment of loans collected from the centre is on course and she will soon make public the successes chalked so far.
According to Hajia, a lot has been achieved, especially with the involvement of private debt-collecting companies. She said these companies, numbering four, have come in handy, after the 16 regions were zoned into four, for the purposes of recovering these loans.
“So far, our recovery drive, we are on course, because we have devised means of taking money. In the past, we were doing recovery just by ourselves, but, right now, we have gotten private companies which are debt collectors –four companies.
“We have zoned the country into four and they are assisting us in the recovery, so very soon we are going to report on our progress on the recovery. We have made some progress and then very soon, I will tell you how far we have gone with these private companies who are serving as debt collectors for us,” the CEO said.
With this decision to go digitalized, Hajia Mahama said, the centre can only get better to serve Ghanaians. She maintained that loan collected is never free money, neither is it for political apparatchiks.
She emphasized on the need for beneficiaries to pay back loans granted to them so that the centre can expand its tentacles and support more people.
“With this kind of digitalization, we can only improve on our processes in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, MASLOC is going to do more and as our fund is a recovery fund, so without recovery the business plan cannot be sustained, so the recovery drive is fully on course and very soon MASLOC is going to impact so many lives more than before, because once we are able to capitalize on the recovery, we are going to serve a lot more people across the country,” she said in conclusion.
Source: Anchorghana
