Microcredit Summit
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are one of the fastest growing NGO sectors in Bangladesh. However, there are few checks and balances, in the form of legislations, in place that can ensure transparency and control interest rates that these groups charge. At the four-day Asia Pacific Region microcredit summit in Dhaka, donor agencies (World Bank, Mott Foundation, Monsanto Holding Limited, India and DFID) and government agencies felt the need to put such legislation in. However, the leader of the opposition, Sheikh Hasina, expressed the opinion that such legislation would be a blow to the NGO's. Instead, to control the interest rates that the MFIs charge to their clients, she urged the government to take steps to reduce interest rates on small-loans just as they have done for commercial bank loans. Other speakers - many of them representatives of funding agencies - felt that for the sustainability of the MFIs a regulatory framework should be established.
Posted by collective at May 01, 2004 11:43 AM
