Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services. More broadly, it is a movement whose object is a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, including not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers. Those who promote microfinance generally believe that such access will help poor people out of poverty.

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services. More broadly, it is a movement whose object is a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, including not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers. Those who promote microfinance generally believe that such access will help poor people out of poverty.

In developing economies and particularly in the rural areas, many activities that would be classified in the developed world as financial are not monetized: that is, money is not used to carry them out. Almost by definition, poor people have very little money. But circumstances often arise in their lives in which they need money or the things money can buy.

Although Micro Credit is a recent initiative of SAP-Bangladesh, it has already promoted the economic empowerment of the poor and disadvantaged family, especially women-headed family in all over the country especially in the Chars and marginalized areas. SAP-Bangladesh maintains the following mentioned necessities in conducting its micro-finance activities:

• Lifecycle Needs: such as weddings, funerals, childbirth, education, home building, widowhood.
• Personal Emergencies: such as sickness, injury, unemployment, theft, harassment or death.
• Disasters: such as fires, floods, cyclones and man-made events.
• Investment Opportunities: expanding a business, buying land or equipment, improving housing, securing a job, etc.

In working with the marginalized peoples over the last 25 years, SAP- Bangladesh has adapted the strategies of empowering the disadvantaged section of the community through promoting human rights, establishing good governance and providing services in the form of micro-finance, quality education, disaster relief and post-disaster rehabilitation etc. SAP – Bangladesh believes that, increased production, fair distribution, greater knowledge and more food would mean more food for more people. In an extremely poor country like Bangladesh, fair distribution of resources is not possible unless there is a greater production of resources. Without increasing production of economic resources, fair distribution will result in fair distribution of poverty.

Therefore, SAP-Bangladesh has equally been emphasizing economic growth approach through micro-finance program. In response to the demands of the community people, SAP- Bangladesh is gradually expanding its micro-finance program.

SAP-Bangladesh started its micro-credit program in the late eighties. Initially, it was an experiment and the program operated in remote islands of the coastal belt. With the initial experience, SAP- Bangladesh expanded this program at Belkuchi Upazila of Sirajganj District in 2002.

After successful experimentation both in islands and main lands, SAP-Bangladesh decided to expand this program to other parts of the country. With a dream of expansion, SAP-Bangladesh became a partner of apex financing organization PKSF in October 2004. Since then, the program has been strengthened and is running quite smoothly. A panel of experts has been engaged to expand the micro-finance program.

Since inception of the program, SAP-Bangladesh has uplifted a good number of families from the poverty level. From very beginning, SAP-Bangladesh initiated the program as voluntary approach not for making profit. Considering that aspect, SAP-Bangladesh can mention that in the program areas, the beneficiaries cordially received SAP-Bangladesh from their heart.

 Goal of the program

Poverty alleviation and ensure socio-economic development of disadvantaged people, especially women.

Objectives

1. To provide better financial services for the poor.
2. To provide micro-credit support to beneficiaries for self-employment and enterprise development;
3. To promote community organizations of poor women for self-help and sustainable development;
4. To eliminate poverty among hardcore poor and poor people once and forever;
5. To develop social awareness and leadership among beneficiaries through weekly meetings;
6. Develop and adopt a savings utilization policy ensuring maximum benefit of the target beneficiaries.

 Supporting Agency

1. Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF)
2. Anukul Foundation, MDF
3. SAP-Bangladesh Own Fund

 Major Components of SAP-BD’s Microfinance

• Group Formation
• Awareness Creation
• Savings Mobilization
• Loan Disbursement
• IGA related Training

Program Beneficiaries

At present, a total of 26,706 peoples are the direct beneficiaries of SAP-Bangladesh’s micro-finance program while of which 1293 are male and 25,413 are female. The indirect beneficiaries are about 108, 676. SAP-Bangladesh maintains the following criteria for selecting its beneficiaries.

1. Landless poor people focusing on women
2. People who own less than half an acre of land
3. People who earn their living by selling manual labor, and:
4. The hard core poor, who live below poverty line.

Working Area: