Restructure, refinance, or hide? How Ghanaian lenders should treat distressed books

Distressed customers are not a moral failure. Hiding them is. Ghanaian microfinance and hire purchase books get into trouble when a refinance is used as a magic eraser: issue a larger facility, pay off the arrears, and call the customer current. Supervisors sample. Radio call-ins happen. The audit trail will show what you did.

A restructure should be a first-class event: eligibility rules, dual-control approval, a new schedule, and a flag that never disappears from history. Interest in suspense, classification, and provision must follow the policy you showed the examiner — not the version in someone's head.

Eligibility that a collector can explain

Write down who may be restructured: minimum months on book, maximum prior restructures, evidence of changed cash-flow, and a payment toward arrears if that is your rule. If the only path is 'ask the CEO', you will either never restructure or always restructure the well-connected.

• Cap the number of restructures per facility.
• Keep the original arrears visible on the history tab.
• Do not auto-cure PAR the day the new schedule is signed.
• Require a named approver above the originating officer.

Hire purchase reinstatement is not a refinance

An HP customer who missed three instalments and wants the asset back needs a reinstatement quote: arrears, penalties capped by policy, recovery costs, and the remaining schedule. That is not a new loan. Mixing the two is how residual value and title get lost.

Board reporting

Show the count and cedis of restructures every month. If the number is rising while PAR is falling, the board should ask why. OrbitMFI's loan history is designed so that question has a table, not a story.