Pranav Ahmed has no idea how he will feed his family next month once his savings run out.
He is deep in debt, has no job and is down to his last Dh10,000. He even considered ending his life.
“Two weeks ago I felt I couldn’t handle the situation. I felt suicidal and I got so depressed,” he says.
Mr Ahmed’s story is one of many told to The National in recent months following our coverage of escalating levels of personal debt in the UAE.
His money problems started in 2012, three years after he arrived in Dubai from India, when he took a Dh60,000 loan to pay for his sister’s wedding back in India.
“I have five sisters and I am the only son. My father was working in state government and has retired. To get my sister married I had to take a loan,” says Mr Ahmed, who asked for his name to be changed.
He struggled to pay the loan back from the start, with monthly instalments of Dh3,000, almost half of his Dh7,500 salary.
“Having so many commitments back at home and having to send money, I was not saving anything. Fortunately my company gave me a pay rise of Dh2,000 and my salary became Dh9,500,” he says.
Mr Ahmed married shortly after receiving the rise. He settled the Dh60,000 loan with Dunia by taking out a loan with a more affordable interest rate from United Arab Bank.
He has since topped up the loan twice, to Dh100,000 and then to Dh150,000, to pay for extra expenses relating to his mother’s heart problem and sister, who has been paralysed since infancy and now needs an operation.
UAB did not comment on the case.
Mr Ahmed, 28, says he had managed to get his debt down to Dh128,000 when he lost his job.
“My company owners had taken around Dh350 million and unexpectedly the business experienced losses, so they escaped the country,” he says. “The company has not even given me a termination letter. The owner is not here.”
The Indian who worked for an oil and gas company, is looking for another job but has not been able to find anything and is now running out of savings.
“I’ve been posting on LinkedIn and on job portals but nothing is working out,” he says. “I don’t know what will happen next month.”
His accommodation is paid until March but he has a family to support and Dh3,700 a month to find to pay towards his loan.
“I spoke to the bank and they said either way I have to pay the money,” he says.
He is still responsible for his family in India, who are only managing to survive thanks to his father’s small pension, but their own lives have been affected as a result of Mr Ahmed’s money problems.
“I want to pay the money back and live in this country for longer. I want to establish myself,” he says.
“It is very hard. We have sold off my wife’s jewellery, so we got some cash for that. Half of my home has been sold off. Back in India I don’t even have a single property. We are all living in a rented place, even back in India,” he adds.
“[My family] has even moved down to a slum area back in India. Can you imagine that?”
pf@thenational.ae
