Executive director, department of financial inclusion of Bangladesh Bank(BB) Md. Abul Bashar said considering the welfare of the backward char dwellers living in the project command area of Care Bangladesh’s SHOUHARDO iii plus activity has been brought under loan facilities of different commercial banks.

“The government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is so much cordial to change lots of the poor including underprivileged char people to build happy prosperous Smart Bangladesh. Taking the matter into cognizance, the BB  has brought the char people under loan facility program and is disbursing loan ranging from TK 500 to 50,000 to the members of village saving and loan association (VSLA) model formed by CARE Bangladesh”, he also said.

Md. Abul Bashar, executive director of Bangladesh Bank made the comments while he was addressing a daylong function on financial inclusion for the char people at SKS Inn located at RadhaKrishnapur area under Boali union of Sadarupazila in the district on Saturday as the chief guestand SM ParvezTamal, chairman of NRBC Bank PLC, spoke at the event as the special guest while Marc Nosbach, Chief of Party of SHOUHARDO III Plus activity presided over the ceremony.

CARE Bangladesh arranged the program under Strengthening Household Ability to Respond to Development Opportunities (SHOUHARDO) III Plus activity, funded by donor agency United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Representatives of CARE Bangladesh, Bank Asia, Madhumati Bank, and Mutual Trust Bank spoke at the event, among others.

Earlier, a presentation on overall activity of the program was made by MannanMazumder, Sr. Team Leader, SHOUHARDO III Plus Activity.

Chief guest Md. Abul Bashar in his speeches said Village Saving and Loan Association (VSLA) model facilitated by CARE Bangladesh is a strong platform for expediting the financial inclusion of the rural poor.

Chief guest Md. Abul Bashar in his speeches said Village Saving and Loan Association (VSLA) model facilitated by CARE Bangladesh is a strong platform for expediting the financial inclusion of the rural poor.

He also put emphasis on financial literacy, properly use of loan for income generation to change the lots of the loan receivers and to accelerate the financial inclusion side by side with finding  potential young entrepreneurs especially women entrepreneurs along with poor people living in chars here for  bringing them  under  the financial support of commercial banks.

JahuraKhatun, one of the loan beneficiaries, expressed her feelings saying that she never thought of opening a bank account by depositing TK 10. She received an amount of loan from a bank with less interest without any hassle she said adding that she would utilize the loan aimed at increasing her family income.

Answers to the question raised by the participants were also given by the guests during the open discussion of the function.

Later, loans were disbursedto 16 members of VSLA in the function.

Marc Nosbach, Chief of Party of SHOUHARDO III Plus, in his speeches said this collaboration would relieve the char people particularly the poor women from the vicious loan cycles of moneylenders and other financial service providers with high-interest rate.

He also thanked all for participating in the event spontaneously.

Representatives of women coming from activity command areas, officers of partner organizations, field-level officers of commercial banks, and inviter persons including journalists from print and electronic media were present on the occasion.