After many trips in rural areas in Bangladesh, there were some issues that I reported to the Head Office for their consideration. Each point requires more in-depth analysis. However, here on the blog I will just briefly explain them.
Repayment: How logical is the weekly payment?
Although I did not see a huge reaction from members, for some members, extended payment options would be a better option. Here is why; weekly payment requirement is just a bit difficult for some certain economic activities that generate profit over time, such as growing vegetable or animal. These economic activities take months to make profit. For GB, members are not expected to start their businesses with the loan. They are already involved in an economic activity and they are earning. So, to the bank the members are expected to pay their loans weekly even though they are not making any profit out off the economic activity for which they used their loans.
Number of Staff: Is it enough?
Most centre managers deal with more than 500 members at a time, which I found very much. But, considering a centre manager’s main job in the field, this is normal according to GB’s approach. Centre managers visit centre meetings one after another just to collect weekly payments.
Who is the poor?
There are definitely poorer people if one really wants to find out in Bangladesh. The most visible ones are homeless people and beggars. They literally got nothing. There is a program called ‘Project Dignity” at Grameen but it needs to be expanded so that more people who fall in this category can be included. For GB, the definition of poor is vague. Everyone is poor, which is true. But, if one claims to reach out the poorest of the poor, the definition of poverty should be tailored accordingly. More than few occasions in the field, I came across some old members who were economically better off but they were still able to get a loan from Grameen. The answer to this; centre managers can do the monitoring. However, they have so many members to deal with. And, at the centre meetings, they spend most of their time by just collecting money, which points to another issue; use of technology. First time in a replication program of GB, the centre managers in Turkey started using post machines to collect and deposit loans. I believe that though it is a very expensive technology in Bangladesh and scale is not comparable at all with Turkish replication (TGMP), the use of this technology would make a huge difference in terms of using time more efficiently and more productively at centre meetings.
