Mayors decry slow recovery of funds from defunct microfinance clients

Authorities in the three districts of Kigali city have decried the slow pace of loan recovery efforts from former clients of the now defunct COOPEC microfinance institutions due poor tracking mechanisms.The microfinance institutions folded shop six years ago following gross mismanagement.The mayors raised the claim yesterday during the launch of the Hanga umurimo programme, a government initiative that aims to create 200,000 off-farm jobs annually.The meeting was attended by the Minister of Trade and Industry François Kanimba, vice governor of central bank Monique Nsanzabaganwa, local leaders, bankers, and beneficiaries of Hanga umurimo pilot project among others. Kicukiro mayor, Jules Ndamage, was the first to raise the issue backed by Gasabo’s Willy Ndizeye.“It is very difficult to track the people who took COOPEC’s loans because one lives here today and relocates tomorrow to a place we wouldn’t know,” lamented Ndamage.The vice mayor in charge of economic affairs of Kicukiro, Angelique Mukunde, pointed out that the main issue was lack of lists of clients whose microfinances were liquidated after the central bank had failed to release them. A moment of uncertainty however arose after a staff member from the central bank and the vice governor Nsanzabaganwa claimed that the lists had been sent, but the mayors denied they had reached their desks.BNR officials however committed to resend the lists. Ndamage said that once the lists reach the district level, the authorities I will collaborate with the police and the Ministry of Justice to recover the funds.The closure of the microfinance left many clients that had entrusted their money with the financial institution in agony though BNR accepted to reimburse part of it.

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Mayors decry slow recovery of funds from defunct microfinance clients