Members of the Money Lenders Association of Ghana (MLAG) are seeking a change of name to do away with the negative image associated with money lending.
Money lenders, who come under Tier 4 of Bank of Ghana’s categorisation of financial institutions, offer loans to individuals in need.
However, the Executive Secretary of the Association, Frank Mawutor Borbor, has told Class Business members are shying away from the group due to negative perceptions about the business.
“Money lending is an age-old concept where people who lend are seen to be shylocks and so the entire membership has agreed that for people to actually appreciate what they do, changing of the name would actually define what they do because they are also part of the microfinance system. [We] are not shylocks. We have not been branding ourselves, we’ve not been coming to the public even though we are about 610 members. The old-age concept of money lenders being shylocks has made people [perceive us negatively],” he stated.
Mr Borbor added: “Some of our members do not want to assign our name to themselves because of the thinking that people have about them and so when the name is changed, the general public will know of us, hear of us, know what we are doing, know the level of our contribution to socio-economic development in the country and then members will also be happy… People are hiding and we don’t want people to hide.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
