Fast loans to fight loan sharks: Ministry mandates 24-hour turnaround on petty trader funding
KAJANG: Agencies under the Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry (Kuskop) must decide on financing applications below RM20,000 within 24 hours to prevent cash-strapped hawkers and petty traders from turning to loan sharks.
KAJANG: The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry (Kuskop) has implemented a rule requiring agencies to decide on financing applications under RM20,000 within 24 hours. This move aims to prevent petty traders and hawkers from resorting to loan sharks due to lengthy waiting periods. Minister Steven Sim emphasized that five-day waiting periods are impractical for cash-strapped traders who urgently need capital to sustain their businesses. If traders are desperate and unable to wait, loan sharks become their only option.
To address this issue, Kuskop will process financing applications for petty traders, hawkers, shopkeepers, and retailers below RM20,000 within 24 hours. The ministry has pledged to allocate RM15 billion in financing to entrepreneurs this year, with decisions on applications below RM1 million to be made within 14 days, and those under RM100,000 within five working days. Kuskop introduced online applications in August, enabling traders to apply without visiting any of its 178 offices nationwide.
During the 2026 National Hawkers and Small Traders Day, Sim highlighted that Kuskop's seven financing agencies disbursed RM10.7 billion to nearly 300,000 entrepreneurs from January to September, with RM3.14 billion in microcredit financing. Approximately 200,000 recipients, comprising two-thirds of the total, were hawkers, small traders, shopkeepers, and similar businesses.
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