Failure to clear your loan will ruin your credit worthiness, credibility
Jaluum Herberts
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There's a Facebook post that I landed on and then decided to follow through the thread but it was so depressing and puturbing.
It was by a lady who claims she borrowed money from MTN and for some reasons (she gives in the post) failed to pay back. Now she says didn't fail to pay back because she didn't have the money but she failed to pay back because in my opinion I think it wasn't really that serious to pay back the money at the agreed time to her.
She was so amused that MTN had to call her several times asking her to pay. At some point these calls became threats according to her.
After relentless calls, she got fed up and decided to pay she says and to her dismay her credit ratings dropped to zero. She was no longer eligible to access a loan from MTN.
Now the real sad part of the whole story/post was in the comments section. One by one everyone who commented on the post bragged about how they borrowed money and didn't pay. One of them, a lady bragged about how MTN called several times and even disconnected her line and she didn't just give a f**k.
This was so absurd for me as a person in finance who is working towards creating accessibility to affordable financing through an app, BOROBORO.
It takes two to tango and in this financial dance it's the lender and the borrower. For the dance to be nice and enjoyable both should do their best, put their best foot forward.
Credit access is one of the biggest problems in this country but the bigger problem as I have to come learn over time is the people themselves. The general financial behaviour of our people is our achilles heel when it comes to credit access.
No one sets out to give out money free and everyone looking for money does so out of need. If you borrow money happily and have to pay it back with a hustle then your being your own worst enemy because one day you'll need money so bad and you won't be able to get it because of your poor credit reputation.
So as we complain about the hardships in getting credit lets also reflect on our personal credit reputation. If we build a reputation as a people who don't want to pay then it will be hard to get money from any one both local and foreign.
Without access to money there's little we can achieve in regards to development at a personal level and also at a national level. These are simple decisions which we make naively or ignorantly but have a far reaching impact when it comes to our ability to access credit or the availability of credit in general in the bigger picture of things.
As an entrepreneur looking explore the option of availing credit or improving credit access where do you think such sentiments leave me? If it were say an international financial organisation wanting to come into the market,what do you think would be running in their heads now?
What of the ones already available? You will continue to complain that it's hard getting money from banks and other financial institutions while forgetting it's you who has made it hard for yourselves as a society. I saw a video in which Ham Kiggundu was complaining about the ability to access credit as a Ugandan and how it's easier and quicker for banks to lend foreigners instead.
I totally agree with some of the points be made but what he didn't point out is to some extent it's our fault. Perceptions are built over time and when built can be hard to change but the truth is you have a great role in building the perception people have about you based on your behaviour and mannerism in their interactions with you.
For a fact I can tell you the perception about us in regards to credit is so so poor even among ourselves as people. If we need an environment where access to credit/money is easy then we have to be accountable ourselves when it comes to meeting our credit/financial obligations
Jaluum Herberts Luwizza is a Speaker,Writer and Contributor with the Nile Post.He is also a Business Consultant at YOUNG TREP East Africa's No.1 Business Management and Consultancy firm that helps people start and grow profitable businesses.
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