Top microfinance institutions (MFIs), besides their prime focus on microcredit, have widened their areas of services in various social sectors like education, health, agriculture and disaster management.
The recently-published annual report of the Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA) has identified some 32 MFIs which have been providing services to six sectors education, health, agriculture, technical support (agriculture and cattle), disaster management and various services to ultra poor.
The top MFIs of 32 are the BRAC, the Padakkhep, the Rural Reconstruction Foundation, the Wave Foundation, the Dhaka Ahsania Mission, the GarkAssociation for Social Advancement (ASA), the Bureau Bangladesh and the Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha (TMSS).
 "The NGO-MFIs have diverted their funds to various non-profitable social sectors instead of lucrative business due to regulators' instruction," Director of the MRA Abu Farha Md. Nasser told the FE.
He said, "A handful of them had been providing different social services besides mere microcredit before the MRA came into being in 2007. The leading one is the BRAC which had expanded its operations in education, health and agriculture long time ago."
 "Not only in Bangladesh, many other countries are now going for post-microcredit or microcredit plus by diversifying their services, providing training and technical support and increasing allocation of money," he added.
Some 25,66,337 persons are receiving educational services from the 32 NGO-MFIs, according to the report, of which the RCF is giving service to 2,25,317, the BRAC 14,73,911 and the TMSS 586,788.
 Some 70.75 million people are receiving health services from these 32 NGOs. The top NGOs providing health services are the BRAC, the Ahsania Mission, the Wave Foundation, the TMSS and the Sajida Foundation etc.
 "The other services are still at a low scale, but these would be expanded in the future," said Mr Nasser.
He said the MRA recently allowed some NGO-MFIs to be involved in remittance services and is planning to include mobile financial services to further widen areas of their work.
With a view to bringing the NGOs-MFIs under a regulatory framework, the government in July 2006 enacted 'Microcredit Regulatory Authority Act, 2006' (Act No. 32 of 2006) which came into force from August 27, 2006.
Under the Act, the MRA is to ensure transparency and accountability of microcredit activities of the NGOs-MFIs in the country.
After the formation of the MRA, around 4,500 NGOs-MFIs showed interest for getting licence though most of them did not qualify.
Currently, 730 NGOs-MFIs are licensed under the MRA and 500-600 more are going to be added to the list.
The Authority is empowered and responsible for implementing the provisions of the Act and for bringing the microcredit sector of the country under a full-fledged regulatory framework.
The Authority has also the mandate and power to take punitive measures if any institution does not comply with any of the provisions of law and rules of the MRA.
It has recently cancelled licences of a number of NGOs-MFIs for irregularities.
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