REHABILITATION PROGRAM

In order to revive a poorly performing microcredit institution, Grameen Trust has introduced rehabilitation services for struggling MFIs. Under this program, GT deploys an experienced Grameen Bank staff who takes over all the responsibilities of the respective branch as the head of the branch. The Grameen resource person has the full authority for supervising and controlling all operations within the branch in order to rehabilitate the institution. The resource person revives branch membership, loan disbursement, loan outstanding and repayment collection. The aim of this program is to create a model branch whose operations can be replicated in other branches through the trained local staff.

In January 2005, GT assigned a senior officer of Grameen Bank with over 15 years of experience, as the Director of Hasnabad Branch of South Asia Research Society (SARS) in West Bengal, India. GT approved a rehabilitation loan of Rs. 3, 00, 000 (US$ 6977) for the Hasnabad Branch of SARS. In 2008, GT approved 7, 50,000 Rupees (US$ 17,341) as scaling up funds to Hasnabad branch out of which 4, 00,000 Rupees (US$ 9,249) has already been disbursed.

Under the strong guidance and supervision of the GT resource person the repayment rate started to increase and the credit discipline has begun to be reestablished. Many members who remained absent for many months started coming back to the program. The staff members who became demotivated got their confidence back and working hard to get the program back on the right track. The repayment rate at the Hasnabad Branch was 18% in December 2004, prior to the deployment of GT resource person. By the end of 2008, the repayment rate rose to 86.64%. The achievement through this program can be seen in the following table -