I was reading a book this Saturday morning titled 5 THINKINGS TO WIN by PRAVIN RAJPAL a recipient of Asia Pacific Global HR Excellence Award for Global contribution to Training and Development. I came across an important topic The Grameen Bank Methodology. The methodology itself is quite different from the conventional banking system. Its so much has similarities with the Islamic Banking system practiced in most part of the world today. A short excerpts from the article Is Grameen Bank different by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who has been named as one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all times by Business week. In the article, Dr. Muhammad Yunus mentioned the differences between Conventional banking system and Grameen system. This is what he has to say: Grameen Bank methodology is almost the reverse of the conventional banking methodology. Conventional banking is based on the principle that the more you have, the more you can get. In other words, if you have little or nothing, you get nothing. As a result, more than half the population of the world is deprived of the financial services of the conventional banks. *Conventional banking is based on Collateral, Grameen system is Collateral-free. *Grameen Bank starts with the belief that credit should be accepted as a human right, and builds a system where one does not posses anything gets the highest priority in getting a loan, Grameen methodology is not based on assessing the material possession of a person; it is based on the potential of a person, Grameen believes that all human beings, including the poorest, are endowed with endless potential. * Conventional bank looks at what has already been acquired by a person. Grameen looks at the potential that is waiting to be unleashed in a person. * Conventional banks are owned by the rich, generally men. Grameen Bank is owned by poor women, Over arching objective of the conventional banks is to maximise profit. Grameen Banks objective is to bring financial services to the poor, particularly women and the poorest, to enable them to fight poverty, stay profitable and financially sound. It is a composite objective, coming out of social and economic visions Over the years, the bank has made loans to 5 million borrowers and done business with 54,000 villages says Pravin Rajpal. This reminds me of a discussion I had with one of our Scholars of Islamic jurisprudence Sheik Abdulmutallib Abdullahi, a lecturer at the Department of Islamic studies, Yobe state University barely two years back on the same issue. We had a long discussion on how poverty and lack of financial support either from the Government or individuals shackles our teeming youths that have potential in innovations and business. The conventional Banking system does not suit into what we want, considering the fact that this banks deals with interest and as Muslims is totally prohibited in Islam. Government in its part lack the will to invest in youths development so are the few individuals we have that can assist in such a beneficial project. But when you think of problems, try to come with feasible and practicable solutions and never see how big the problems are, but rather put your mindset into how the problems can be solved. We then thought of how we can build a network of youths to come together and come forth with a road map for individual development to alleviate poverty among ourselves. I will mention just one example of a practicable solution; if we can get 100 youths who can contribute just ₦2,000 per month which I believe you can get that within Damaturu alone. Each month we can expect the sum of ₦200,000 for 12 months is ₦2.4 million and each member has contributed just ₦24,000. Then the money can be invested in a legitimate business, with good plan and supervision in todays business, ₦2.4 million invested for 12 months you can expected nothing less than ₦600,000 as profit. Remember, the contribution continues for another 12 months and another ₦2.4 million is contributed which equals to ₦5.4 million. Now think of this system if well managed and member remain steadfast for 5 years. But our problem is implementation, and another thing that brought set-back is the insecurity issue. But with peace returning to our dear state, it is very important we engage ourselves in such activities. No one can solve your problems except you.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 13:34:53 +0000
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