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Aspects of Microfinance System of Grameen Bank Of Jamal Nazrul Islam, Haradhan Kumar Mohajan, Rajib Datta, Int. J. Eco. Res., 2012, v3i4, 76-96 ISSN: 2229-6158 ASPECTS OF MICROFINANCE SYSTEM OF GRAMEEN BANK OF BANGLADESH Jamal Nazrul Islam Emeritus Professor, Research Centre for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh Haradhan Kumar Mohajan Premier University, Chittagong, Bangladesh. E-mail: [email protected] Rajib Datta Department of Finance, Faculty of Business Studies, Premier University, Chittagong, Bangladesh. E-mail: [email protected] ________________________________________________________________________ Abstract The microfinance system of Grameen Bank is a revolutionary tool to eradicate poverty of the rural people especially the women of Bangladesh. At present GB is the largest microfinance bank in Bangladesh and probably the biggest microcredit organization in the world. It provides loans to assetless and landless poor people whom no commercial bank give loan. Microcredit is the most useful and popular financial system in the world to face financial crisis of the poor people. Grameen Bank loan distribution has risk of default and sometimes the loans are used even dowry which is crime against women right. The rate of interest in Grameen Bank is very high and due to high interest rate the poor women can not use the loan in a high profitable business to bear this burden, so some of the borrowers lose lands and assets to pay the loan. The paper discusses both advantages and drawbacks of Grameen Bank with mathematical calculations in some details. Keywords: Grameen Bank, Microfinance, Joint liability, Loan, Risk of default ________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION is a difference between them. The aim of Grameen Bank (GB) is to Microcredit refers to the act of providing reduce poverty in both rich and poor the loan. On the other hand microfinance countries. It gives loan to those people is the act of providing these same whom the government or any borrowers with financial services, such commercial bank will not give loan as savings institutions and insurance facility. Both rich and poor countries of policies (Sengupta and Aubuchon 2008). the world microfinance tries to improve Bangladesh is a developing country with access to loans and to saving services for a vast rural society which is about 90% low-income, low-wealth people which is of the total population. The majority of the fastest-growing and best-known tool the rural population, particularly women, to combat poverty. The Nobel Prize is subjected to severe poverty, gender committee awarded the 2006 Nobel inequalities and unemployment. Due to Peace Prize to Dr. Muhammad Yunus negligence of the rural development by and the Grameen Bank for their efforts the government and rich population the to reduce poverty in Bangladesh. In the financial condition of the poor in the USA the number of microfinance villages remain unchanged after the organizations and their budgets has independence of the country in 1971. grown exponentially in the past decade The GB is a well-known institutional (US Newswire 1999, Meyerhoff 1997). framework that has achieved The terms microcredit and microfinance considerable success in improving the are often used interchangeably but there socioeconomic conditions of the rural IJER | JULY - AUGUST 2012 76 Available [email protected] Jamal Nazrul Islam, Haradhan Kumar Mohajan, Rajib Datta, Int. J. Eco. Res., 2012, v3i4, 76-96 ISSN: 2229-6158 poor, particularly women, in Bangladesh 1994a,b). At first GB was extended to (Sarker 2001). whole of Tangail district (a district of Dr. Muhammad Yunus, a Professor in Dhaka division) in 1979 with the Economics of the University of financial support of Bangladesh Bank Chittagong, Bangladesh, has founded the (Central bank of the country) and some GB. The country was slowly recovering other nationalized commercial banks. In from a vicious war of independent in 1981 Yunus was preparing to test the 1971 which had destroyed its new lending model on a large scale and infrastructure and its productivity and wanted to open dozens of branch offices murdered much of its intelligentsia. The in five rural districts in addition with damage caused by the war had been previous branches. The commercial amplified by the famine of 1974 and banks declined Yunus’ initial request for suffering of human on a vast scale could capital. So that he went to Ford be witnessed in any town or village of Foundation’s office in Dhaka and asked Bangladesh (Hulme 2008). He watched for an $800,000 loan guarantee fund as the people of Bangladesh to starve in the security against commercial bank famine of 1974 (Yunus 1998). He lent an lending. After careful appraisal by senior average of $0.64 to a bamboo weaver staff, in 1981 Ford agreed to the request and to 41 others in various purposes. The and deposited the requested funds in a borrowers repaid their loans and GB account at London as a framework improved their lots. After this success he for offering reflections on current gave loan to some other persons but few debates within US philanthropy on of them did not repay the loan. He accountability, support for innovation, thought that this was because they had risk taking and impact. Ford’s loan either used the money unwisely or were guarantee fund leveraged commercial not trustworthy. He began to experiment bank lending to GB (Lawry 2008). with ways of (i) approving and After that success in Tangail, the project supervising loans, to ensure they would was further extended to several other be used for productive investments, and districts of Bangladesh such as (ii) selecting trustworthy clients and Chittagong, Dhaka, Rangpur and managing them, so that they would Patuakhali. In 1983 it was transformed repay their loans (Hulme 2008). He into an independent bank by a made a brilliant idea for the best solution government ordinance, with the name to help the poor out of their poverty, Grameen Bank. In 1983, the government which then grows over the world. It provided 60% of the initial paid up share initially began in the village Jobra near capital of the bank and the rest 40% the University of Chittagong, procured by the borrowers of the bank. Bangladesh and some of the neighboring In 1986, the government share capital villages during 1976-79. was reduced to 25% and the rest was Dr. Yunus has observed that commercial from the borrowers. In 29 June 2012, Dr. banks had in-built constraints and are Yunus expresses that the share capital of aimed only at those who are already well government is only 3% and major 97% off. He contemplated an alternative from the members of GB (The Prothom institutional framework that could be Alo, 29 June 2012).GB is the only an used to raise the wellbeing of organization that provides interest free impoverished sections of society (Yunus loans to the beggars. IJER | JULY - AUGUST 2012 77 Available [email protected] Jamal Nazrul Islam, Haradhan Kumar Mohajan, Rajib Datta, Int. J. Eco. Res., 2012, v3i4, 76-96 ISSN: 2229-6158 At present GB is the largest micro- The sectoral share of general loans in finance bank in Bangladesh and 1994 was 35% for agriculture, 16% for probably the biggest micro credit processing and manufacturing, 26% for organization in the world. In the livestock and fisheries, and 23% for commercial bank the clients have to other activities such as trade, commerce, come for services in banks but GB and peddling. officials go the clients which is a new Successes and potential benefits of the system in microfinance banking sector. GB micro credit system are as follows: It is known worldwide for its innovative • it exhibits an average of 97% credit delivery to the rural poor (95% are repayment rates, women). It selects assetless, landless • the members of GB enjoy an average poor people of Bangladesh, focuses on household income at least 25% the poor women, and provides credit higher than nonmembers, delivery system to meet the diverse • the number of GB members living socio-economic development needs of below the poverty line has rapidly the poor. Many believe that GB’s decreased, lending has been successful because of • the landless benefit most, followed its joint liability loans have induced by marginal landowners, borrowers to provide mutual assistance • there has been a shift from in hard times (Besley and Coate 1995). agricultural wage labor to self- But Rai and Sjöström (2001) argue that employment and petty trading a shift joint liability is not enough to efficiently which results in an indirect positive induce borrowers to help each other; it is effect on the employment and wages also necessary to ask borrowers to make of other agricultural wage laborers, reports about each other. and which has impacted poverty GB adopted some social beneficial alleviation and economic works such as group based lending, the improvement at a national level, and collateral free lending system, and peer • group savings have proven as group monitoring system. The successful as group lending. adaptation and learning practice such as flexibility of obtaining a loan, a housing THE MODEL OF GB loan with lower interest rate, mandatory GB is purely a bank that provides and voluntary savings were the most banking services only to the poor. It significant issue. GB has computerized extends credit to the poor to invest in accounting and monitoring system with productive sectors such as processing its 2,552 branches out of 2,558 and manufacturing, agriculture and (Grameen Bank 2009). By integrating forestry, livestock and fisheries, services group-based lending, mandatory savings and trade. It is exclusively for poor and insurance, repayment rescheduling people and it is directly owned by them in case of disasters, and similar other as well. The government of owns 10% of schemes, it has been able to minimize GB and has three nominated members both behavioral and material risks of on the Board of Directors.
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