A Meeting With Some of The Dansoman Community Market Loan Victims
On the 25th of April, 2024. I arranged through the market leaders to meet with some of the women who are victims of the loans scandals. I met 12 women, and all of them confirmed their shops were closed down due to loans they took to boost their business, unfortunately, their expectations were not met. They outlined the following as the reasons for their failure.
- There is no financial security guarantee amongst those who offer them loans.
- They lack financial management skills to plan for the usage of the loans they take hence they run into debt every time. They confirmed that about 50 shops are closed down they had to sell everything to pay loans
- The so-called “susu” collected appear with juicy packages after they convince them enough to start saving with them they later run away with their monies.
- There is also a lack of investment knowledge gap among them hence they do not invest for themselves for security. Eg Social Security and National Insurance Trust Pension scheme and other investments. This affects them in times of financial shocks, sickness, and poverty in old age.
It was really sad to hear that some of them could not send their children to school again and for that matter, they are home as the day l visited them.
The project will also seek to address the lack of knowledge of the various pension schemes that those from 20 – 45 years of age can register with, especially the Government pension schemes for financial security in the future. The question now is how these women will bounce back. Surely, they need help to enable them to bounce back.