Redemption Co-op Credit Union is a small, parish based credit union with room to grow. The board, for simplicity and convenience, meets jointly with the loans and supervisory committees monthly – which means these committees that are set up to operate independent of influence from the board, are essentially circumventing the safeguards the structure has put in place. After reviewing our concerns with the manager and the board secretary, they felt re-assured as they had had small small discussions in the past, but the affirmation from the coaches gave them new resolve to address these concerns.
The credit union bylaws has also enabled the board to delegate authority to the manager, but they had never taken advantage of this. Members asking for loans had to wait for the monthly credit commitee meeting and were not being served well by this.
Many of the loans were smaller in size to members that had been successful in paying off previous loans. The board will be addressing providing loan approval to the manager for these more routine loans – a positive step for the management and for the members.
Along with several other recommendations, our report was positively received and Bruce and I have completed the onsite visits with credit unions. We have some homework to do for CCA whcih we can do between now and Canada – we have a debrief on Thursday and then off to arrive in London Friday monring and then leave for Canada on Sunday/Monday.
The whole experience here in Ghana with the credit unions again has been very gratifying – I am always surprised at the insight we Canadians are able to offer even in areas outside of our expertise. There have been many changes in the 7 years since I was last year – I will note them in my next post…..
Gene
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