Committee deliberations . Risk of lending to the poorest of the poor - Mr Naidoo stressed that Samaf is dealing with the poorest of the poor, and as samaf it has accepted that any loss of money is still an investment in a learning process. . Interest charged - according to the acting CEO, Samaf was created to avoid a commercial emphasis. The FIs charges rates stipulated by the credit regulator, and Samaf envisages engaging with the intermediaries to see how the rates can be decreased. Samaf rates are a low 4 - 6%. The ideal situation, according to the acting CEO would be to remove interest rates charged to intermediaries, particularly in the early stages of the loan. . Payment of creditors - members noted that Samaf have managed to reduce the timeframe for payment to creditors even though they (Samaf) indicated that there is a skills shortage. The acting CEO responded by saying that at the time this happened he was not yet employed by Samaf. He further noted that there processes and procedures have been put in place to indicate, on a daily basis, the status of accounts that had come in. Currently payment is made within 10 days.