IMPACT OF BRAC MICROCREDIT AMONG WOMEN BENEFICIARIES IN SELECTED AREAS OF SYLHET DISTRICT

Abstract

The present study dealt with the impact of microcredit among women beneficiaries in selected areas of Sylhet district. Socio-economic studies, adequacy, utilization, repayment and cost of credit, profitability of selected enterprises and impact of credit among the women beneficiaries constituted the objective of the study. 60 women beneficiaries of the microcredit were randomly selected from Tuker Bazar and Tultikor union of Sylhet district in which 20 were from each of petty business, poultry farming and tailoring. Both tabular and econometric techniques were used to analyze the collected data. Findings revealed that the respondents were capable of keeping small family size and maximum of them were of active age group. In the case of literacy status primary education was highest (46.67%) and no illiterate respondents were found among beneficiaries under the study area. Primary occupation for most of the borrowers was housewife in the also some of them depended on some other non-agricultural activities. Poultry farming owners held the highest position in family income, expenditure and saving followed by petty business and tailoring enterprise because of good earning ability. The adequacy of microcredit was 80.49% which reflected BRAC’s easy and friendly lending procedure for the selected enterprises. Four cost items were identified to obtain loan from BRAC and total transaction cost of poultry farming enterprise was the largest (Tk. 197.22) while it was the lowest for (Tk. 173.71) tailoring enterprise because of different factors. But effective cost of credit was highest for petty business and lowest for poultry farming. Borrowers were found having positive attitudes towards productive credit use as maximum of the borrowed money was utilized purposively by the respondents. Purposive utilization of loan money and their repayment performance was fully satisfactory. The repayment performance was 98.13%. Family income, loan amount, and profit from enterprises were the most significant factors for repayment of loan. All the enterprises under BRAC were profitable but Poultry farming ranked the highest securing position in both BCR and net return followed by tailoring and petty business in study area. After joining BRAC there was a remarkable improvement in the living standard of the respondents households. Considering all enterprises together, impact of microcredit on family income was ranked the highest according to borrower’s perception and family expenditure was also increased after getting microcredit from BRAC. It may, therefore, be inferred that BRAC led to increase family income and socio-economic status of the women borrowers in general. The study reveals that participation of women in microcredit programs is positively related and is a significant indicator of their level of empowerment. Thus, it can be concluded that development of women in Bangladesh can be significantly improved by encouraging them to participate in microcredit programs of BRAC