BANGI (April 22): The National Entrepreneurial Group Economic Fund (Tekun Nasional) is optimistic that it will be able to reduce the financing arrears rate from 12.66% to single digits this year, said Deputy Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Datuk R Ramanan.

He said the leadership of Tekun Nasional chairman Datuk Abdullah Sani is focused on reducing the arrears rate this year, and he is confident that the target would be achieved.

“Indeed, every day there are [borrowers] coming forward to make payments, but we have to give them more time, because they are still trying hard after their businesses were adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

“This year, we also aim to reduce the number of non-paying borrowers to single digits,” he said, after attending Tekun Nasional's 2024 Aidilfitri gathering here on Monday.

On March 2, Ramanan reportedly said that 137,520 Tekun Nasional borrowers had debt arrears of more than six months, amounting to more than RM1.1 billion, with a financing arrears rate of 12.66% nationwide as of January this year.

Meanwhile, referring to the number of Tekun Nasional funding applications for this year, Ramanan said about 30,000 applications had been received as of this month.