Ntarinkon Credit Union Poised To Elevate Tenants To Landlords With 10 Years Loan Grant

By Ignatius Nji

                                           Matoya Cletus Anye NTACCUL President

The 42 year old Ntarinkon Cooperative Credit Union NTACCUL with membership of 32525 has moved to the next level in its fight against poverty by means of granting building loans to members. This scheme according to the President of the Union, Cletus Anye Matoya, is going to enable members who are still renting to own their own homes by granting loans on 1.5 interest payable within 10 years.

This revelation was made public during the 28th annual general assembly that took place in Bamenda on February 22, 2015 in the presence of the SDO representative Mr. Abubaka Sidiki. The President told the general assembly that he and his team have all along been trying to clean the house of some dirt. Members were delighted to have a 6% interest to be paid on saving for 2014 and interest rate reduced from 1.75% to 1.5% for loan above saving and 1.5% to 1% on loan within savings. A member can just identify a house for sale and the Credit Union would pay half the cost upfront and withhold ownership until the full cost is paid back to the credit union.

It was announced that NTACCUL was recognized with two awards of excellence by two organizations in 2014 as best managed Microfinance in the North West Region. With these awards, the year 2014 was said to be a reminder of the glorious days in 2004 when NTACCUL was declared the fastest growing Credit Union in West Africa.

Though NTACCUL has subscribed to the call by members to disaffiliate from CamCCUL network, the President made it clear that the union has not yet affiliated to any other umbrella organization. The BOD wants to make sure that any decision to that effect should be done without any regrets at any point in time. The process of total disaffiliation according to him is slow though progressing given that CamCCUL had already build a powerful reputation as an umbrella organization. However NTACCUL has gotten FCFA 200 million which is part of her share savings from CamCCUL and is still working hard to get the rest which about FCFA 970 million. Several talks are ongoing between those opting for disaffiliation, the ministry of Finance and CamCCUL. Concerning the embezzlement case of the Douala Branch the court has ordered that Ateh Comfort who is presently on the run should pay FCFA 75Million couple with 5 year suspended sentence while Anye Bayelle case was suspended because he jumped bail is also on the run. As for the land case in Yaounde, it was reported that the court cancelled the sale of the land and the matter has been taken to the court of Appeal. A member suggested that instead of continues expenditure on that land issue, it should be dropped for credit union to forge ahead.

The General Manager Muluh Divine whose recruitment contract was confirmed based on performance, presented a draft budget for 2015 that was balance in revenue and expenditure to tune of FCFA 2079.890.322 up from FCFA 1.650.732.527 of 2014 and the general assembly adopted. Presently the delinquency rate stands at 17.4% with over 7863 borrowers against FCFA 9.717 billion as loan.