Grameen Bank, Bangladesh

• A credit and savings programme which has been in operation for at least two years, reached at least 500 poor households, maintained a cumulative repayment (amounts collected/amounts due x 100) of at least 95% and mobilized borrower savings of around 10 percent of loans disburced.

• Targetted exclusively on the poorest of the poor (bottom 20 percent) with preference for women. Quality control on this targetting and the intention to reach large numbers of poor.

• Credit delivered to savings mobilized in the community, with simple, open procedures.

• Field staff rigorously trained in the branches for six months. Borrowers also trained before joining in their responsibilities.

• Borrowers organized into self-chosen, self-help groups of five like-minded people, of same status, same village, but not close relatives, who take colective responsibility for each other. Six to eight groups are federated into centres which meet weekly, elect their own officials and charge them annually. Attendence at weekly Centre meetings is compulsary.

• Loans start small (USD 20-50) and are used for self-choosen, but group/centre-approved, income-generating activities, replyable over 6-12 months. Loans are closely supervised. A self-chosen social development programme helps guide members out of poverty.

• Effective interest rates are sufficiently above commercial bank rates to cover higher costs of delivering supervised credit to the community, to attain branch-level viability within four years.

• Accounts are externally audited by a certified chartered accountant and published in an annual report.

Source:

Grameen Dialogue.

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Hari Srinivas - hsrinivas@gdrc.org
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