The ongoing restructuring at Nation Media Group is hitting even at employees’ wallets. Banks have blacklisted the leading media house as a loan guarantor for its workers and has stopped offering credit to them.
It is understood that Standard Chartered bank stopped giving loans to Nation employees about four weeks ago while Barclays blacklisted them last week. Employees who had applied for various credit facilities have been getting regret letters from the banks, including the Nation sacco which remains the biggest saviour for NMG employees in need of quick credit.
A staffer who had applied for a loan early this year to finish up some personal project got a rude shock when Barclays credit manager wrote back to him with a regret. “Sorry NMG is blacklisted at the moment,” the manager said. “They wrote to the bank asking it to stop giving loans as they cannot gurantee employment.”
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This is a major blow coming at a time when many Kenyans, especially parents, who need a financial injection to pay school fees. It also means those who had hoped to finance projects and businesses will, in the meantime, look for alternative sources of incomes.
Banks and Saccos are often cautious when lending to employees of a restructuring company for fear of lending to workers who could soon lose their salaries and find it difficult servicing the loans. The Nation Sacco itself has been a victim of defaults related to retrenchment and is keen to avoid a crisis at this time when many of its members are being sacked. NMG is cutting down its wage bill and repositioning its media business to fit in the new digital era.
As the restructuring enters its last phase, Nation employees who survive will have to wait longer to be accepted as safe customers by banks and their own Sacco.
[crp]
