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Micro lenders should go for tech upgrades

Says Brae Founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed

Star Business Report
Microfinance institutions will have to embrace a technology-based financial system as the existing processes for loan sanction and disbursement will change entirely within the next decade, said Brae Founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed.
The loan amount and the instalment size will be determined by technology, shortening the time needed to provide microcredit to clients, he said at a book launching ceremony organised by the Credit and Development Forum on Saturday at the Brae Centre Inn in Dhaka.
A mobile phone app is now being
developed in the US that will allow clients to take loans and make repayment.
Brae Bank's subsidiary bKash has already emerged as a popular technology-based financial service provider in Bangladesh.
The CDF, a platform of microfinance institutions, started its journey in 1992 with the view to building the capacity of MFIs. The organisation launched the book "CDF er Etibritto (History of the CDF)".
Microcredit has been playing a positive role in improving the livelihood of the people over the years, said Md Fazle Rabbi Mia, deputy speaker of the parliament
Atiur Rahman, a former governor of the Bangladesh Bank, said microcredit has helped the country in becoming a developing country from a least developed nation.
He said banks disburse farm loans through MFIs, which has changed the lifestyle of farmers.
Before the introduction of microcredit, farmers were forced to take loans from usurers at an interest rate as high as 200 percent. But usurers had disappeared when MFIs started disbursing loans to the poor, Rahman said.
Amalendu Mukherjee, executive vice-chairman of the Microcredit Regulatory Authority, urged banks to channel more funds to MFIs. "If an MFI fails to repay the loan we will take measures to recover the fund," he said.
At present outstanding loans of MFIs stand at Tk 130,000 crore and savings of clients at Tk 42,000 crore, according to Mukherjee.
Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Dhaka Bank, said Bangladesh was labelled a bottomless basket after its independence, but the country has progressed tremendously since then.
Bangladesh is now a middleincome country and is the 44th largest economy in the world, he said. "Microcredit has played a key role in the country's achievement. This has also empowered women."
The CEO said many criticise MFIs for their high-interest rates, but sometimes a loan becomes more important to borrowers than the interest rate.
Md Emranul Huq Chowdhury, chairman of the CDF; Sukhendra Kumar Sarkar, a former chairman of the organisation; and Sajjad Zohir, executive director of the Economic Research Group, were also present.