The government has taken an initiative to implement an integrated micro credit programme at villages under the existing rural social service programme with an aim to build a 'poverty and beggar free Bangladesh', a social welfare ministry official said.
The 12 interest-free micro credit programmes of eight departments will be brought under one umbrella to check overlapping of loans and duplication of programmes.
An inter-ministerial meeting was held on November 18 this year with the social welfare secretary Nasima Begum, ndc in the chair.
Other departments running micro credit programmes are: Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB), Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), Women Affairs, youth and sports, cooperatives and fisheries.
There are 9.68 million beneficiaries under the micro credit porogrammes of these departments. Social welfare department only has a micro credit programme involving a fund of Tk 4.81 billion.
Joint secretary of social welfare ministry Nurul Kabir Siddiqui told the FE that a social media 'adda' was arranged on November 23 where senior secretary of the prime minister's office (PMO) Abul Kalam Azad was present.
During the 'adda' seven divisional commissioners were asked to nominate names of seven upazilas from each division. Out of these 49 upazilas, seven upazilas were selected from seven divisions for piloting the micro credit programme under special arrangement, he said.
The seven upazilas are: Tungipara of Gopalganj under Dhaka, Sonagazi of Feni under Chittagong, Bera of Pabna under Rajshahi, Mujibnagar of Meherpur under Khulna, Taltoli of Barguna under Barisal, Tetulia of Panchagarh under Rangpur and Rajnagar of Moulvibazar under Sylhet division.
Mr Siddiqui said the beneficiaries of the selected villages will decide themselves for which profession she wants micro credit. Clusters will be created according to their choices and they will be trained by resource persons. Credit will be given after they are trained, he added.
For example, he said if a village has 300 eligible micro credit applicants of whom 50 want to raise poultry, the livestock department will give them training. If the department has the micro credit fund for 30 people, social welfare department will give the rest 20 the required micro credit for their self-employment.
The aim of this programme is to avoid overlapping and to ensure credit to every eligible borrowers\\, Mr Siddiqui said.
A 16 member upazila rural social service implementation committee has been implementing the interest-free micro credit programme through economic and social survey. Any family having an annual income of Tk 50,000 to Tk 60,000 and more are considered as eligible for interest-free micro credit ranging from Tk 5000 to Tk 30,000.
They have to repay the loan in 10 installments with 10 per cent service charge.
The schemes in which the government provides interest-free micro credit are: small business, fish cultivation, poultry raising, goat rearing, cane and bamboo works, sewing, rickshaw and van pulling, rice crushing and cow fattening.
Meanwhile, Access 2 Information (A2I) programme has taken initiative for a micro credit management system (MCMS) aiming to ease micro credit through reducing the sufferings of the beneficiaries, applicants and eligible people of micro credit by saving time, money and travel through electronic MCMS.
This MCMS will be developed for all the departments under the micro credit implementing ministries at field level. The government expects to start the system operation by December 2015.
When asked for his comment on the government initiative, director general of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Mustafa K Mujeri said there are a significant number of micro credit programmes in the country at government and non-government level. But the impact of these programmes is insignificant mainly due to lack of coordination.
He said if such an initiative for coordination in the government-run micro credit programmes is taken, it can bring a good result in economic development provided the coordination is not limited in papers only. If the coordination among the micro credit programmes of both government and NGO level can be ensured, it will be even better, he added.
Mr Mujeri suggested analysis of various micro credit programmes under different ministries and examination of every aspect of the coordination to make the programme effective.
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