Finance minister AMA Muhith on Sunday stressed the importance of an integrated approach of microfinance in the coming days to have a greater impact on poverty reduction.
Addressing the closing session of a two-day national conference on microfinance and development at Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation, the finance minister said the credit size needed to get larger while the schemes more inclusive to effectively pull people out of the poverty level.
The conference was organised by the Institute of Microfinance.
Muhith said the country’s success in poverty reduction in the past had not simply been influenced by the greater financial inclusion of people through microfinance activities, but also indebted to government and private sector initiatives that include area development, integrated rural development and rural electrification.
The finance minister also noted that most of the microfinance institutions in the country are operating without being registered under the Microfinance Regulatory Authority.
Only a few thousand microfinance institutions are registered under the MRA, but there are about 28,000 organisations with about 65,000 branches doing the micro-financing in the country, he said.
Most of these organisations are unregistered, or registered as societies under the societies act, the minister added.
The authorities should take action to bring these microfinance institutions under the same umbrella, Muhith recommended.
Speaking on the occasion, PKSF chairman Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said the future approach of micro-financing in the country should focus on financing larger amount of money to help boost micro entrepreneurship.
Presided over by Kholiquzzaman, the closing session was also addressed by JICA chief representative in Bangladesh Takao Toda, UNDP country representative Pauline Tamesis and InM executive director MA Baqui Khalily.
-With New Age input
