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Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Bandhan, a Kolkata-based microfinance institution and Unitus, Inc. partner, today announced that it is now providing life-changing financial services to more than 500,000 of India's working poor. With about 350 branches across five states - West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tripura and Assam - Bandhan has disbursed loans totaling Rs. 413.00 crores, with a portfolio outstanding at Rs. 166.00 crores.
With 800 million of India's 1 billion people living on less than $2 a day, Bandhan is bringing economic opportunity to a huge underserved market. Bandhan's accomplishment is especially noteworthy because fewer than 2 percent of microfinance institutions in the world reach even 100,000-clients, making Bandhan a leader in the fight to alleviate global poverty.
In addition to its microcredit services, Bandhan is also developing credit-plus programs. "Over these years of microfinance operations, we realized that microfinance is not the last word for development, there is something more to be done," says Mr. C.S.Ghosh, Founder and CEO, Bandhan. "We learnt that microcredit programs bypass the poorest of the poor, and we wanted to include this neglected section of the population," explained Mr. Ghosh.
The Chartering into UnVentured Frontiers - Targeting the Hard Core Poor (CUF-THP) Program is tailored to meet this very need. The idea is to select the poorest pockets through a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) exercise, provide necessary training after the beneficiaries have selected their respective enterprise and then transfer the asset to the selected beneficiaries. The program provides grant support (in the form of an asset) to clients for about 18 months. There will be complete supervision and monitoring of these beneficiaries during this period to ensure that they are able to improve their standard of living. The ultimate objective is to transition these clients to the mainstream microfinance program at the end of 18-24 months. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is also closely involved with this project. This idea won Bandhan the CGAP Pro Poor Innovation Challenge Award early last year.
Bandhan has selected one of the poorest districts (Murshidabad) of West Bengal to pilot its CUF-THP rural program. The first asset transfer is scheduled to take place at Sargachhi on July 11, 2007. "It is a unique program in itself and we are looking at covering at least 3,000 hard-core poor by the end of March 2008," said Mr. Ghosh.
About Bandhan
Bandhan - meaning "togetherness" - offers microfinance services to poor women across 5 states in India. Founded by Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh in November 2000, Bandhan provides microcredit, micro enterprise and health loans to both rural and urban poor. Headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal, Bandhan now serves more than 500,000 clients, up from about 50,000 in April 2005, when Unitus and Bandhan formed a partnership. To learn more about Bandhan, visit www.bandhanmf.com
About Unitus:
Unitus, Inc. is a worldwide leader at scaling innovative solutions to global poverty. Unitus accelerates access to life-changing financial services for those at the bottom of the economic pyramid - the three billion people who are living on less than $2 a day. We partner with the world's most promising microfinance institutions and provide them with breakthrough business strategies, technology and access to capital that empower them to serve thousands more hardworking micro-entrepreneurs around the world. Unitus partners are adding new loan recipients eight times faster than the industry average. Our portfolio reaches more than 2 million families through 16 partners in Argentina, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico and the Philippines. Our goal is to reach more than 15 million of the world's working poor by 2015. Unitus has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and on National Public Radio, and received Fast Company magazine's Social Capitalist award in 2005 and 2006.
Unitus is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, with offices in Redmond, Wash. and Bangalore, India. For more information, please visit www.unitus.com or contact us at info@unitus.com.
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Bandhan Members
Source: Unitus (Business Wire India)
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