PKSF boss speaks on new solutions to poverty
Microcredit alone cannot eradicate poverty as it needs training, education and housing also to effectively use the credit to attain sustainable development, said Quazi Mesbahuddin Ahmed, managing director of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), yesterday.
The PKSF boss said this while speaking at a seminar on microcredit organised by Development Organisation of the Rural Poor (DORP), a non-government organisation, at Bhuapur in Tangail. Ahmed attended the event as the chief guest.
“The government is trying its best to regulate microcredit operations across the country,” he said.
While clarifying a common understanding that the microcredit interest rates are high, he said the Microcredit Regulatory Authority is now working to find out the relevant facts prevailing as well as different effective interest rates of microcredit in Bangladesh.
Because of the high costs of operating in the remote areas, the interest rates get higher when compared with that for loans from commercial banks, he said.
Such interest rates may go up to around 25 percent to 30 percent, but the exact rates are yet to be determined. There are around 480 microcredit organisations registered with PKSF, who currently charge interests at rates varying from 20 percent to 120 percent on their microcredit disbursements, he added.
Ahmed also distributed awards among the best performing micro creditors in the district town and the organisation’s staff members.
Earlier, the PKSF MD laid the foundation stone of the main building of DOPR’s Village Training Centre in Sirajganj. The training centre will facilitate the locals’ access to microcredit, monitor DORP village health project activities and health budget.
KM Abdul Wadud, upazila nirbahi officer, and AHM Nouman, secretary general of DORP, were also present at the ceremony.
Nouman suggested that the government transform its public-private partnership stance into ‘public-poor partnership’ for ensuring a sustainable development of the country.
“In this way, the poor will also be able to contribute effectively to the economy,” he said.
