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Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia today launched the Integrated ICT System which automates all the operations of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) in the country at the Jubilee House.

He said this is an information technology solution that would address payment and settlement challenges of MASLOC and bring an air of efficiency into its operations.

The platform which is a collaboration between the centre, the ARP Apex bank and designed by the Eban Capital, the software providers automates end to end process of credit management, loan application, the credit assessment, disbursement of the loan, loan repayment and monitoring and reporting all to make loan assessable.

To apply, applicants would need a business name, TIN, a digital address, passport picture and a valid identity card among others.

The Vice President commended the board and CEO of MASLOC, Mr Stephen Amoah for the initiative as it was in line with the President’s vision to digitize government operations as possible and all aspects of the economy to make Ghana the most business-friendly economy.

He said before the Covid-19, the government had embarked on aggressive digitization but the pandemic had reaffirmed the position of the President that building a digital economy was the way to go, adding that “the Covid-19 has been destructive in many ways but distractive events can catalyze change for the better”.

He said businesses would not be as usual after this crisis and that there would be increased reliance and confidence in technology with online payment systems radicalized, leaving institutions with no option but to subscribe to digital service delivery.

Dr Bawumia said Ghana was on course as far the digitization was concerned and that the architecture that Ghana was putting in place was preparing the country well for the post COVID-19 global economies.

He said MASLOC was poised to effectively deliver on its objective by providing funds for SMEs especially the unbanked customers who formed a greater percentage of the informal sector of the economy and also position MASLOC for the next world order of service delivery.

He explained that this would also help enhance government’s efforts at formalizing the informal sector of the economy and commended the partnership with ARP Apex Bank because a lot of the SMEs were very much in the informal sector and still unbanked.