Teachers In Ghana Education Service Have Been Advised Against Using Their Affordability to Secure Loans for Others by Hon. Jerry Akporhor, The Team Lead At Informed Teachers Network.
NEVER ACCEPT TO USE YOUR AFFORDABILITY TO TAKE A LOAN FOR ANYONE
I gave this caution to one newly trained teacher, and he asked me, “What is AFFORDABILITY?” Affordability, in simple language, is the amount of loan you are qualified to take.
In other words, it is the total amount of money that the controller can permit to be deducted from your salary every month. Usually, it is 40% of your salary. It can’t exceed half of your salary.
They cap it this way to protect employees. But we sometimes exhaust this amount and later go to the bank for more loans, which will be deducted from the leftovers.
Your affordability is like your CREDIT CARD. The bigger your salary, the bigger your affordability. No loan or insurance company is permitted to deduct more than half of your salary. For example, with 500gh affordability, you qualify to afford a loan of about 4,000gh for a duration of, say, 1 year, and the 500gh monthly deduction would cater for the principal and interest for the 12-month period. I hope it makes a little bit of sense to you.
Now to the main issue. Never give in, I repeat, never give in. Senior colleagues, family members, friends, and some elderly people you respect in the community will come to you begging for loans. Don’t give in our pf shyness or pity. I also never knew about this affordability thing until they started coming. If you tell them you don’t have money to lend them, they try to convince you to use your affordability to take the loan for them with sumptuous promises. The kind of repayment terms they give you would sound so convincing, but I tell you, resist it with all your strength and might. It’s usually not easy to tell them NO! BUT YOU’VE GOT TO DO IT. Say it with your last breath. Take this advice, and you will thank me later. Refer them to the bank.
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Save your affordability for a rainy day. You know, this salary work we are doing, it’s not very easy to save. Meanwhile, emergencies do happen. If for any reason you are unable to save or exhausted your savings, your affordability is what may save you from death or disgrace one day if an emergency happens. At least you have leverage, something to lean on.
Giving in to this sweet request would be the beginning of the end of your beautiful friendship or relationship. They usually don’t pay back. Even if they do, the delayed payment distorts your plans. See, most of them have exhausted their affordability with the controller and their bank, and maybe what is left after all the gargantuan deductions will not even be able to feed them. How do you expect them to repay you?
-✍ Hon. Jerry Akporhor