A 28-year-old woman in Arua has been arrested for failing to pay a Shs500,000 MTN Mokash loan she borrowed 8 months ago.
The single mother of 2 (name withheld) admitted to have borrowed the money but due to unavoidable circumstances, she failed to pay the loan.
She adds that she has never been a loan defaulter until hard times stroke her.
“I used to borrow money on MTN and Airtel but during the times of COVID-19 lockdown, I borrowed the money from my both lines but by the time I got the money to pay, the due date had already passed and I couldn’t sacrifice the little I had for paying it because I wouldn’t be eligible to borrow again,” she said.
“I was suffering with my children since I was laid off from my work, I had no source of income and no one to look out for to help in terms of finances. I saw that I was eligible to borrow upto 500k on MTN and upto 600k on Airtel. I borrowed it and that money helped me to push through the toughest 3 months of the first ever lockdown in Uganda,” she explained.
She is still under detention until the loan is paid.
MTN Uganda has emphasized all its customers who have borrowed money to pay back to avoid this kind of incidences.