Mobile phones facilitate susu deposits
People who employ the services of susu collectors will soon be allowed to deposit their savings into their accounts through their mobile phones.
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This follows moves by the Ghana Co-operative Susu Collectors Association (GCSCA), the umbrella body of registered susu collectors in the country, to introduce Information Technology (IT) into the operations of its members to make their work faster and easier.
The association thus intends to have a pilot programme with at least 50 members in Accra and Kumasi on the use of mobile phone application software for deposit mobilisation.
The General Secretary of the association, Mr Obed Asamany, said at their eighth annual general meeting (AGM), that “we envisage that this will reduce drastically, the use of manual data entry practice and as well remove the stress collectors go through submitting their prudential returns.”
He noted that the mobile phone data entry software application would also increase the speed with which collectors operated, thereby increaing their daily collections.
“Full-scale implementation of this system after the pilot will also increase the confidence of depositors in the traditional susu system since SMS messages and printed receipts will be given to them upon withdrawals and deposits,” he said.
The Head of the Microfinance Unit of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Yaw Gyimah Larbi, said BoG had to regulate activities in the industry to protect public funds and ensure sanity in the operations of the micro-finance sector.
He also said the central bank would continue to educate the public on the need to deal with licensed members and cautioned unlicensed operators to regularise their operations since they could be prosecuted when caught.
Presenting a report on the monitoring and supervision activities of the association, the Head, Monitoring and Supervision at GCSCA, Mr Edmund Benjamin-Addy, said they found out that many susu collectors were still engaged in activities which the BoG frowned on.
Such activities, he said, included giving of loans, hire purchases and all kinds of savings, adding that some members were still not keeping proper records of their activities.
He, therefore, recommended that members should be made aware of the existence of the monitoring and supervision department and be informed that a greater part of their activities would be carried out without prior notice.
He also stressed that the department would organise refresher training programmes to help members in the areas of proper book keeping and BoG prudential monthly reporting very soon.