Mr Jones Kwabena Akrasi, Director of Lawson and Sons Financial Services, a Kumasi-based non-banking financial institution, has appealed to government to appreciate the immense contribution of micro-finance companies to the country's socio-economic development and lend them the needed support.
He said micro-finance companies are creating jobs for the youth, assisting petty traders with loan facilities to improve their trade and more importantly inculcating the habit of savings in Ghanaians, especially traders and small-scale entrepreneurs.
They also pay taxes to increase government revenue for national development.
Mr Akrasi was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi, during a media briefing by his company.
He said in spite of these and other positive contributions to the country’s economic growth and development, micro-finance companies had to contend with serious challenges in their operations.
The Director said notable among their challenges was the problem of loan delinquency and recovery, adding the situation had the tendency to collapse most of the institutions and defeat the purpose for their existence.
He, therefore, called on state institutions like the Police Service and the Judiciary to assist micro-finance companies in their efforts at effective loan recovery, to sustain their businesses and improve the living standards of the people.
He said his company had the intention to expand its operations to cover the whole of the Ashanti Region in the coming years and urged all stakeholders to play their roles effectively to realise the objective.
Mr Akrasi commended the staff and customers of the company for making the year 2012 a successful one, and assured customers of better service conditions and improved service delivery in the years ahead.
He used the occasion to wish all the company's stakeholders and Ghanaians a prosperous and peaceful New Year.
Present at the meeting were Messrs Paul Amponsah, John Kwabena Aikins and Joseph Sosu Kumako, all senior management personnel of the company.