Susu collectors not savings and loans company - Assoication (Page 29)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah (Saturday, September 20, 2008)

THE Ghana Co-operative Susu Collectors’ Association (GCSCA) has stated that it is illegal for Susu collectors to operate as savings and loans companies without approval from the Bank of Ghana (BOG).
The association has, therefore, cautioned its members who would want to operate as savings and loans companies to contact the B0G for the right procedures to be followed.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra, the National President of the GCSCA, Emmanuel Aboagye Manuh, explained that the rules governing the operation of a savings and loans company were different from that of the traditional Susu collector and therefore, advised members of the association to take note.
Susu collectors usually collect daily savings from individuals to save on their behalf for commission and then pay back the total savings to that individual at a time agreed on by both the collector and the customer which is usually at the end of a month.
Mr Aboagye Manu pointed that the number of “Susu Scams” were increasing in the country adding that their activities were having negative impact on genuine operators and, therefore, needed to be checked.
Information from the BoG indicated that under the bank’s requirements for Non-Bank Financial Institutions Licences: “No person shall carry on business of non-bank financial institution unless it is licensed by the Bank of Ghana”.
It went on to explain that among other requirements, “all institutions which operate under the Financial Institutions (Non-Banking) Law of 1993 (PNDCL 328) require not less than ¢10 billion as a minimum capital for non-deposit-taking business. In the case of foreign ownership, not less than 60 per cent of the required capitalisation shall be brought into Ghana in the convertible currency”.
To prevent its members from going against the laid down regulations, the leadership of the Ghana Co-operator Susu Collectors Association subsequently issued a warning to all its affiliates as well as full members who collected customers’ savings and later give loans out of such savings, to desist from that practice immediately or be sanctioned.
An earlier statement signed by the General Secretary of the GCSCA, Nana Abboa Ofei Akoto, stated that a monitoring team had been put in place to embark on a nation-wide tour to help locate any unscrupulous member of the association for the appropriate sanctions to be applied.
It said any company which had a problem with its operations had been given six months, (up to March, 2009), to conform to the Ghana Co-operative Susu Collectors’ Association’s guideline or have themselves to blame.
The statement indicated that part of the guidelines laid down for the operators indicated that they should submit monthly financial records through the association’s regional offices for onward submission to the national office.
“The required information should cover a list of clients contributing to their Susu products; a monthly report of deposits mobilised and bank statements indicating funds lodged in the bank as well as a report on loans given to clients and the source of the funds” it pointed out.
It said there was the need for the members of the association to ensure that the right things were always done for the public to have trust in their operations adding that the association was currently having discussions with the authorise to come out guidelines which would allow self-regulations by the association itself.