MOMO loan debtors refusing to register SIMs — Bank of Ghana
SOME debtors of Mobile Money(MOMO) loan services are refusing to register their SIM cards as a way to avoid settling their indebtedness, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has said.
The central bank warned that those customers risked negative repercussions on their borrowers’ credit reports and history in a manner that could deny them access to loans in the future.
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In a statement issued yesterday and signed by the Secretary of the bank, Sandra Thompson, to warn the culprits said the BoG was fully aware of what it described as the dubious intents and urged the perpetrators to stop or face the consequences.
Credit bureaus
In the statement, the central bank said its attention had been drawn to the fact that some individuals who had acquired loans through mobile money platforms were deliberately refusing to register their SIM cards under the ongoing national SIM card registration exercise.
It said information available to it further revealed that the intention of the debtors was to avoid the repayment of the acquired loans.
"The BoG wishes to inform the general public that data on all mobile money loan customers are domiciled in the databases of credit bureaus.
As a result, failure to repay such loans will attract negative repercussions on borrowers’ credit reports/history and could subsequently adversely affect any chance of obtaining loan facilities from other financial institutions and credit providers in future," the statement said.
Discarded SIMs
The statement further advised borrowers who have discarded their SIM cards to contact their telecommunication service providers or respective lenders to discuss repayment arrangements.
It said that was needed to "avoid adverse information on their credit reports that could deny them access to future credit facilities."
