DHAKA, July 24, 2022 (BSS) – Chairman of the Board of Directors of Grameen Bank Prof Dr AKM Saiful Majid today said that the bank has been working to build a beggar-free country since some 83,367 beggars have been brought under its “Songrami Sodoshho” programme.

He informed that the beggars are being returned to the normal life through distributing interest-free loans among them while there is no specific deadline for their loan repayment, even they are not pressurized to pay their loan installments.

The Grameen Bank chairman said this while exchanging views with journalists held at the Grameen Bank headquarters in the capital’s Mirpur area.

He said that initially a target has been set to make three poverty-prone districts of the country free from beggars while the whole of the country would be made beggar-free in phases.

Prof Saiful informed that already some 22,000 beggars have left their work and have been upgraded from the “Songrami Sodoshho” category into the general member category.

Managing director of Grameen Bank Md Abdur Rahim Khan, deputy managing director Mosleh Uddin and other high officials were present, among others, on the occasion.

The Grameen Bank Chairman said that the number of Grameen Bank members has crossed the milestone of one crore while no other micro-credit organization in the world have such number of members.

He informed that since last June, the total deposit of the bank stood at Taka 23,348 crore while the amount of realized loan stood at Taka 14,598 crore.

Prof Saiful said many have a common perception that the Grameen Bank could not run without its founder Dr Muhammad Yunus, but that perception has now been proved false as the present working force of the bank is a well disciplined force.

He said after 2011, Dr Yunus was not associated with the Grameen Bank in any capacity while the bank made a hefty profit of Taka 481 crore during the pandemic in 2020.

Grameen Bank managing director Md Abdur Rahim Khan said that Dr Yunus has no share in this bank as the government owns 25 percent share of the bank while the rest of 75 percent shares belong to its members.

“After the departure of Dr Yunus from the Grameen Bank, this bank has performed much better compared to the past while the bank has been placed in the highest position of progress in 2022 in all important indicators,” he added.