By Sofia Nasir
SHAH ALAM, Jan 11 — Yayasan Hijrah Selangor is engaging with collection agents to retrieve outstanding loans that have ballooned to over RM100 million from some 16,000 businesses since 2015.
Its chief executive officer Datuk Mearia Hamzah said the state subsidiary is also setting up a credit call centre as part of its efforts to reclaim unpaid debts.
According to her, about 300 borrowers have been identified to have failed to make a single loan repayment and have since been blacklisted in the country’s credit reporting agency CTOS.
Mearia said the initiatives by Hijrah Selangor to recollect debts are necessary to ensure more loans can be given out to new borrowers for the purpose of starting their businesses.
“For 2024, we want to intensify efforts to collect all outstanding loans. We will be relying on collection agents and credit call centres for this.
“We will also initiate legal action against defaulters. Some have not made a single payment, and we are monitoring them.
“Meanwhile, we do not rule out the possibility of imposing strict conditions on new borrowers to ensure loans are repaid,” she said at a press conference at the Selangor Information Technology and Digital Economy Corporation (Sidec) headquarters, here, yesterday.
Earlier, she attended a lucky draw event for the ‘Bayar Balik dan Menang’ (Pay Back and Win) campaign.
On borrowers who are facing financial difficulties to make loan repayments, Mearia said Hijrah Selangor allows them to restructure their loans.
Hijrah Selangor was formed in 2015 to offer fast and easy business capital loans to small vendors and traders who are facing financial difficulties.
Since its inception, the state subsidiary has offered various financing schemes like i-Bisnes, Zero to Hero, Go Digital, Niaga Darul Ehsan, i-Lestari, i-Agro and i-Bermusim.
