Consistent loan payment critical to access to more loans
Managing Director of Beige Capital, a savings and loan company, Mike Nyinaku has attributed the difficulty of accessing loans by Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to the attitude of borrowers in paying back to the loan companies.
This attitude, according to him, deters financial institutions from giving loans to small companies and individuals who want to access these loans.
In Ghana, access to loans is particularly low for rural people and in certain parts of the country and this has led to the upsurge of savings and credit facilities across the country.
The availability of these facilities has been of immense benefit to small rural entrepreneurs, many of whom are women.
Informal mechanisms such as the susu and moneylenders sometimes fill the gap, but they have drawbacks. Generally, small and often semi-formal credit schemes have been more successful than the formal system in reaching such business operators.
Mr. Nyinaku also added that most small and medium scale enterprises do not keep records of their trading activities, thus, making it difficult for them to track borrowers.
A faster and balanced economic growth, rapid urbanization, population growth and, above all, a much better communications infrastructure, augur well for the retail financial sector in the coming years.
As banks and other financial service providers as well as the mobile phone industry positions itself to cater to the needs of a large and currently unmet market, business operators & investors are urged to be faithful and committed to the loans they acquire and pay back as agreed upon.
Beatrice Baiden, e.tv Ghana business news
Accra, May 17, 2012
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