CENTRE FOR SELF-HELP DEVELOPMENT

Institute of micro-finance and cooperative development.

Nepalese MFIs Officials' Visit To Bangladeshi MFIs

CSD organized an exposure/ study visit to Bangladesh in collaboration with the Integrated Development Foundation (IDF), Bangladesh from December 19 - 27, 2015. Ms. Abhilasha Poudel- Training Officer of CSD coordinated the team of nine MFI officials- Mr. Dammar Prasad Aryal-Chairperson of EDCOL, Mr. Rajendra Bahadur Pradhan- Executive Director of SOLVE-Nepal, Mr. Rabindra Narayan Pradhan- Board Member and Mr. Nil Kantha Poudel- Senior Manager of Swabalamban Laghubitta Bikas Bank Ltd, Mr. Pawan Raj Pathak- Senior Manager and Mr. Yub Raj Bartaula- Senior Manager of the Deprosc Laghubitta Bikas Bank Ltd., Mr. Radha Krishna Timilsina- Senior Managerand Mr. Bharat Raj Panta- Branch Manager of Chhimek Laghubitta Bikas Bank Ltd and Ms. Neela Malla Pradhan- Board Member of Mahila Sahayogi Bachat Tatha Rin Sahakari Sanstha Ltd. Mr. Harun Rashid was the coordinator from IDF, Bangladesh.
The way of doing microfinance operations have changed with the passing of time and the team got exposed to how Bangladeshi MFIs have evolved itself through time. They got acquainted with a variety of models and techniques of MF operations mainly on products and services diversification, processing of loan application, collections of payments and savings in well known microfinance institutions like IDF, Grameen Bank, ASA and BRAC.
The team also visited the head Office of IDF and Grameen Bank in Mirpur- Dhaka, branch offices of Grameen Bank, BRAC and Central Coordination Office (CCO) of IDF in Chittagong and branch offices of ASA and IDF in Cox’s Bazaar.
The team observed different centre meetings of all four organizations, interacted with the members, visited their households and had discussions in their branch, area and zonal offices where  the team learnt about different strategies adopted by all the four organizations in order to differentiate themselves from each other  and standing strong on their own. The team was able to visit two centre meetings of IDF where members belonged to tribal community. They were touched by the plight of those members and got impressed with IDF working with such deprived community.
The team appreciated Grameen Bank providing shares to its members, BRAC for its accounts management, ASA for its health and sanitation awareness program and IDF for its solar and health programs. They found that Grameen Bank is popular because it is the pioneer and biggest microfinance bank, BRAC is renowned as the biggest Financial Intermediary NGO , ASA is famous for its low cost management and IDF is popular for its credit plus programs in Bangladesh.

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