By HELEN ZULU –
OVER 45 properties worth millions of Kwacha have been repossessed by the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) for failure by owners to repay loans owed since 2009.
CEEC director general Likando Mukumbuta said since inception in 2009, the commission had repossessed over 45 properties from owners who failed to repay loans to the commission.
Mr Mukumbuta explained that the commission repossessed the properties  to recover the money it had given to citizens who have failed to repay the loans as the commission needed  the money to empower more citizens.
He said in an interview in Lusaka that the commission was currently in the process of selling the properties to ensure that the money recovered could benefit other citizens and achieve the objective of supporting Zambians towards viable businesses and job creation.
“For us to recover  public money that we lend to our citizens, we work with them as much as possible to resolve any constraints and difficulties that they have, sometimes we even restructure a loan to increase the time for them to pay.
“If that fails and because this is a revolving fund, we repossess the properties depending on the agreements we have with the owners, so since inception, we have repossessed over 45 properties from our citizens,” Mr Mukumbuta said.
He however, said it was only in rare circumstances that the commission had to repossess the properties for that reason as most citizens were performing well in terms of loan repayment.
Mr Mukumbuta said the loan recovery rate has improved to over 51 per cent currently from 22.6 per cent recorded in 2012.
He said the commission was targeting to reach 80 per cent loan recovery rate by 2021 saying so far the commission was on target.
“In terms of loan recovery, we have been very successful, our citizens have been listening to us, in 2012, we were at something in the region of 22.6 per cent, loan recovery rate, but since 2013, the loan repayment rate has more than doubled to over 51 per cent so we are very excited,” Mr Mukumbuta said.