Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah
A deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah, has refuted claims that she had engaged in vote buying in the Yendi constituency ahead of the parliamentary primaries of the governing NPP, as her “political detractors” have sought to portray with a picture of her disbursing MASLOC money to some beneficiaries.
According to her, she was officially assigned to disburse an approved total loan amount in excess of GHC1, 000,000.00, on May 21, to eligible applicants who were farmers and market women in Yendi.
The MASLOC loan, according to her, is to empower the women economically to enable them support their families with profits from their enterprises. It is also to help alleviate the challenges presented by the COVID-19 and the slowdown of economic activities to the farmers and market women.
The said amount was meant to be disbursed among 30 groups of 25 members and individual beneficiaries, bringing the total number of applicants to 776.
She described the attacks on her as misplaced, saying they do not support “the facts of the official disbursements”.
She indicated that it was not the first time MASLOC was disbursing group loans to applicants in their localities, saying that was part of the efforts to avoid distribution to “ghost names”. According to her, similar disbursements had been carried out in the Ashanti, Bono and all other regions in the country.
“I have had the responsibility to supervise the smooth disbursement of loan facilities within my catchment area, which undoubtedly includes Yendi, my birth land. Therefore, I did not understand why some detractors are misleading the public in a bid to score cheap and underserving political points, which have fallen flat,” the Deputy CEO stated in an interview.
We can improve
Hajia Abibata added that there is always room for improvement, saying a myriad of suggestions have been noted from positive contributors on the issue.
“MASLOC is a listening and learning institution and thereby considering some of the contributions, all in a bid to improve our modus operandi. That is the reason why we launched our digital platform last week, aimed at reducing, significantly, the manual inclusions in our activities like disbursements on table-top, as the status quo has been,” she stated.
“I am very proud to have been able to lobby for such a huge loan facility from MASLOC for my people. I didn’t secure the loan for political reasons, but to transform the lives of the people who are ready to work to feed their families and humanity but hitherto did not have the capital or needed a boost. The voters in Yendi have enough trust and confidence in my abilities, and are already satisfied with my numerous supports and interventions,” Hajia Abibata stressed.
She maintained that her footprints are very visible in every community in the Yendi constituency, saying she has secured employment for close to 2000 youth and other employable persons, supported several farmers, provided water and electricity for some communities as well as supporting in the health and education sectors, among others.
