PM Hasina slams microcredit, emphasises ‘Ekti Barhi Ekti Khamar’, Rural Savings Bank

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has once again slammed microcredit programmes, saying they are leaving people trapped in ‘high’ interest.

She emphasised ‘Ekti Barhi Ekti Khamar’ (one house one farm) and Rural Savings Bank projects to make poor villagers self-reliant by breaking free of the tangled web of microcredit.
 
The prime minister was speaking at the inauguration of 100 branches of Rural Savings Bank at Ganabhaban on Wednesday.
 

She acknowledged that she had once spoken in defence of microcredit. 

“But I noticed that those taking the loans could not take up any permanent project to repay their loans every week...because they had to pay interests at high rates,” Hasina said. 

“The result: Those giving the loans have been coming by profit while the poor remain trapped in poverty.”

“In some cases, they (the borrowers) have either committed suicide or have gone bankrupt by selling off all their belongings,” she said. 

“In the remaining cases, they have had to bear the burden of repayment by taking microloans one after another,” she added.

The prime minister said ‘this situation’ had led her to thinking about the ‘Ekti Barhi Ekti Khamar’ project.

The Awami League government launched the ‘Ekti Barhi Ekti Khamar’ project during its 1996-2001 tenure. The BNP government subsequently suspended it.

It was re-launched when Sheikh Hasina returned to power in 2008. At present, around 2.3 million families are connected to the project through around 22,000 cooperatives across the country.

The government has introduced Rural Savings Bank to maintain the monetary affairs of ‘Ekti Barhi Ekti Khamar’, conduct credit activities and investment. The bank aims to encourage savings among rural people.

The government owns 51 percent share of the bank while the remaining stakes have been kept for cooperatives under ‘Ekti Barhi Ekti Khamar’ or similar cooperatives.