Meeting on bank loan to shoal area people
Our Correspondent, Gaibandha
A view-exchange meeting on providing bank loans to poor men and women in shoal areas was held at the Gano Unnayan Kendro on Thursday.The meeting was sponsored by Oxfam, an international NGO. Presided over by M Abdus Salam, Chief Executive of Gano Unnayan Kendro, the meeting was attended by bankers, journalists, Union Parishad (UP) members and NGO man. The speakers criticised banks for working out a mechanism to provide loans to the poor. Sheer profit motive should not guide any business institution, they said. Phulpur UP member Anser Ali Mondal said, "We feel hopeless when banks deny loans to people of char lands (shoals). Such attitude should be changed". Another UP member Miajan Ali said people of char lands borrow money from moneylenders at interest rates as high as Tk 200 per month for Tk 1000 loan. Of late, some NGOs have started giving them loans in a limited scale, but also on high interest. The bankers said they would try to evolve a mechanism to provide loan to char land people.
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