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Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia says the Covid-19 pandemic should provide an opportunity for companies and institutions to adopt relevant technology to improve service delivery.
He said business would not be as usual after the pandemic, and institutions have no choice but to subscribe to digital technology for greater efficiency.
Dr. Bawumia said this when he launched an Integrated ICT System for the Microfinance and Small Loan Center (MASLOC) at the Jubilee House in Accra.
The ICT platform is an innovative solution to improve transparency and accountability in loan disbursement and recovery.
It would also address payment and settlement challenges, as well as reaching the broader unbanked population in underserved communities.
Furthermore, the challenges associated with loan applications and the low loan recovery rate would be a thing of the past and would improve access to target beneficiaries, such as small and medium-scale companies and associations.
All beneficiaries must have MASLOC cards, Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) and digital addresses to facilitate monitoring.
He said technology was an integral part of President Akufo-Addo’s government vision to digitize government machinery and improve public service delivery.
He said he would push the country’s agenda to build a digital economy and become the preferred business destination in Africa.
Dr. Bawumia said that the global Covid-19 pandemic has reaffirmed the President’s belief that building a digital economy is the way to go and would be the catalyst for development after the pandemic.
He said that even before the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government began to implement a digital architecture to transform the economy and therefore mentioned the deployment of the Mobile Money Payment Interoperability System, National Digital Address System and owned, QR Code, Instant Payment and Ghana Link as some of the platforms to digitize the economy.
“I believe that the ICT System will give a fresh air of efficiency to MASLOC’s operations in terms of loan processing, increase access to products and services and reduce the human interface.
“This is a great transformation for MASLOC and would bring a great element of transparency and accountability,” said the Vice President.
Accordingly, the Center would not make loans based on their political affiliation, but to all qualified Ghanaians.
Dr. Bawumia was convinced that the IT solution would improve confidence and give impetus to the Minister of Finance to give more liquidity to MASLOC’s operations.
Stephen Amoah, the Executive Director of MASLOC, said that the Center was established in 2006 to close the capital gap between SMEs and large companies.
He said that the ICT platform would improve efficiency in operations and administration of disbursement and loan recovery, as well as protect the public portfolio.
It would also be useful for the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, NBSSI and other national financial institutions in the disbursement of funds.
The Center, he said, has disbursed more than 115 million Ghanaian cedis to 97,195 beneficiaries in the past three years, compared to some 75 million Ghanaian cedis disbursed between 2009 and 2016.
Amoah said he has created 570 new jobs and opened 200 offices in rural areas.
In addition, it has established the Internal Audit and Bidding Committee for Entities and the Internal Audit Unit to improve efficiency and transparency in its operations.
The Center, he said, would share its data with other universal banks and financial institutions to improve the disbursement of loans to the rural population across the country.
MASLOC is currently partnering with ARB Apex Bank to improve service delivery.
