Robust growth for BRAC

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 24 June 2013, 06:40 AM
Updated : 24 June 2013, 06:40 AM

With 19 percent increase in its income, the world’s largest NGO BRAC says it witnessed ‘a robust growth’ last year overcoming a previous ‘stagnation’.

Unveiling the NGO’s annual report, its Executive Director Mahabub Hossain on Monday said they moved out of a ‘relative weak growth’ in 2011 with its overall income close to Tk 41 billion last year.

It spent Tk 35 billion last year, which was also 14 percent more than the earlier year.

The growth has been attributed to recovery of microfinance, more donors’ grants as well as increase in incomes from enterprises.

The service charge on microfinance loans saw a big growth, accounting for nearly 36 percent of the NGO’s overall income.

The Executive Director said the income from this source went up by 18 percent, in an apparent recovery from the setback the microfinance sector suffered starting from 2009.

The donors’ grants, that finances free-services programmes pertaining to education, health, ultra poor, water and sanitation and community empowerment, account for 29 percent of the income.

The income from the enterprises and income generating projects has increased by 12 percent.

Founded in 1972 as a small relief and rehabilitation project, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee has expanded its activities into wide range of development programmes including health, education, agriculture, and food security.

BRAC runs different enterprises like poultry, fisheries, printing and salt making units apart from its investments in bank, housing finance corporation and tea estates.

In the last decade, it expanded its activities outside Bangladesh and currently operates in 10 countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

Executive Director Mahabub Hossain said the NGO’s total assets increased by 22 percent to Tk 97.8 billion last year from Tk 82.2 billion.

He said the capital fund reached to Tk 32.1 billion with a 21 percent growth from the previous year.

He said their programmes contributed in attaining MDG targets particularly in cutting poverty rate. The World Bank has recently said that Bangladesh would achieve the poverty alleviation target even before the 2015 deadline.

Last year BRAC announced that it would be fully self-financed by 2021, the year by which Bangladesh aims to become a middle-income country.

BRAC ‘s Chief Financial Officer SN Kairy on Monday said they are ‘self-reliance’, but due to their ‘successful’ programme implementations, “more donors are coming with new projects”.

He said their aid dependency “reduced in terms of percentage, but increased in terms of volume”.