The LGRD and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, also the ruling Awami League's general secretary, on Wednesday said that micro-credit had been introduced 1904 long ago before the Grameen Bank introduced it in the early 1980s although it had differences in application.
In reply to a question of AKM Maidul Islam, Ashraful said that the Cooperative Credit Society Act was introduced in 1904 and small credits on easy conditions were given to farmers to save them from lenders.
'Philosophically, although there are similarities between cooperatives and the Grameen Bank, there are also differences between them,' he added.
Ashraful said that there was no legal entity of the beneficiaries of the Grameen Bank but cooperatives beneficiaries had such legal entity.
There are also differences in terms of the identification of beneficiaries, amount of credit, process of realization process, timeframe and interest rates fixation, he said.
Ashraful said that beneficiaries of the Grameen Bank were mostly among the landless women but the cooperatives act clearly says: 'The local government, by general or special order, prohibits or restricts the lending of money on mortgage of immoveable property of any kind thereof by any society or class of societies.'
Source : New Age
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