Toward a mobile phone based solution for microcredit in rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Microcredit was introduced in Bangladesh in the early '70s and since then, it has been considered as one of the principal means of socio-economic development in many parts of rural Bangladesh. However, the impacts of Microcredit are often criticized and the ultimate objectives are sometimes accused to be missing in reality. We conducted a field study at the district of Jamalganj in Sylhet, Bangladesh that revealed some interesting facts behind the failure of Microcredit operations in there. In this paper, we have discussed these findings and propose a mobile phone based solutions to those problems.