Micro Finance Program

Women empowerment has been one of the top priorities of development agencies and the Bangladesh government as it is recognized that women continue to experience various forms of discrimination in one way or another. In order to empower poor and marginalized women, we need to focus on their economic development to enhance their roles in decision making processes. It is very difficult to find any society without poverty, let alone developing or less developed countries. Microfinance provides an influential tool for income generation and thus contributes significantly in poverty alleviation and women empowerment. But accessing loans in traditional commercial banks and other financial institutions is very demanding for poor women as they fail to live up to the strict criteria set for borrowers. Therefore, the facilities of microfinance serve as an important instrument for the poor to safeguard their food security and help lift them out of poverty.

The Micro Finance Project (MFP), previously known as Micro Credit Program (MCP), came into existence in 1972, immediately after the liberation war of Bangladesh. In the post war period, when the whole society was wrecked and unemployment rate was at its pick, CSS focused on creating employment opportunities by providing training and small loan at the same time. Since then, this project has grown significantly. CSS provides small loans to impoverished borrowers who lack stable employment and verifiable credit history. It is designed to support entrepreneurship and ultimately alleviate poverty. Currently CSS has expanded its microfinance intervention in most parts of the country operating 222 branches in 29 districts and covering almost 7,088 villages across 212 upazilas. Under this program rural people; especially women are receiving financial help along with the motivation and guidance to take initiatives towards making the right decisions when it comes to savings, borrowing and investment. There are several types of loan facilities for the beneficiaries such as general loan, small business loan, SMED (Small and Medium Enterprises Development) loan and agriculture & fisheries loan. Loans are provided with easy payment terms, a reasonable interest rate and repayment method. In addition, the field officers are regularly conducting group awareness raising sessions where different issues of daily life are discussed such as healthy lifestyle, children’s education, sanitation, hygiene etc.