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Download PDF The early afternoon of yesterday belonged entirely to four exceptional micro entrepreneurs and a microcredit institution, who were awarded for their individual and organisational successes, their visions, and their enterprising spirit.
The winners are testaments to the success of microcredit programmes in which Bangladesh is the pioneer.
In the spirit of celebrating the outstanding, Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards 2007, a global effort of Citi Foundation, were formally announced at a gala reception in Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.
Barison Begum of Jessore won the Best Microentrepreneur of the Year award, while Mossammat Rahima Begum of Satkhira received the Best Woman Microentrepreneur award.
Anannyo Samaj Kallyan Shangstha received the Best Microfinance Institution of the Year award while Anwarul Islam of Jessore got the Best Innovative Microentrepreneur award.
Economist Wahiduddin Mahmud, also chairman of Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation, announced the names of the winners while chief guest of the programme Finance and Planning Adviser Mirza Azzizul Islam handed over the awards. Each winner received Tk 3 lakh as cash prize.
Some 4,300 individuals and organisations from all over the country competed for the awards in four categories. The advisory council of Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards 2007 selected the winners after several rounds of screening and field interviews.
Best Innovative Microentrepreneur Anwarul Islam set an example of how to overcome poverty through hard work and innovation. He used to be an ice-cream vendor selling the product from door to door. It was very hard for him to meet the needs of his family with that business, which drove him to the idea of manufacturing ice-cream sticks.
“At the beginning I was producing ice-cream sticks from bamboos. I was looking to make it cost-effective, and for a much easier than traditional way of manufacture it, but could not do that for lack of capital,” he said recalling his early struggling days in the business.
He finally imported an ice-cream stick manufacturing unit from India with a microcredit of Tk 70,000 from an NGO in addition to his own capital he had in his hands, and started manufacturing the ice-cream sticks using local petuli trees.
Now, Anwar’s business is not only earning money for himself and his family, he also showed the people in his locality how to generate income using a locally available raw material, producing quality products. Moreover, he is employing a number of local people in his factory, and people who supply raw materials to him are also getting a boost in their earnings.
Best Microentrepreneur Barrison in her emotional brief speech said it was very hard for her to maintain a family of seven with the sole income from her husband’s small grocery shop.
“One day, I saw a flower grower transporting large bundles of flowers to a market. Seeing that I decided to start my own flower growing business, and taking a microcredit of Tk 5,000 from an NGO, I started growing flowers,” she said adding that her flower growing business changed the lives of her family members since then.
“My future plan is to expand my business,” she added.
Expressing her reaction, Best Woman Microentrepreneur Rahima Begum said she comes from a very poor family and her husband was a day labourer who worked very hard to earn a living.
Becoming a member of a microlending NGO in 1993, she took Tk 3,000 as a loan and started a crab farm that has changed not only her family’s fortune but also the financial condition of her community.
Mahfuz Quadri, executive director of Anannyo Samaj Kallyan Shangstha, received the best microfinance institution award on behalf of his organisation. Established in 1983, Anannyo works mainly in Pabna. Its strategy is to bring development to villages one by one in the area. Some of the notable programmes of Anannyo are, reproductive and maternal and child health (MCH) clinics, Anannyo hospitals, urban health care projects, research, and publications. It has a large number of borrowers benefiting from its microfinance programme too.
In his instant reaction, Mahfuz said, “Microcredit is a medium for changing the livelihoods of common people, especially the ultra-poor.”
Speaking at the ceremony, the finance adviser urged banks and non-banking financial institutions to come out of the box of traditional lending and to get involved in microlending too.
“Microlending and microentrepreneurship are essential to establish a balanced economy. It is needed to link up microcredit and microentrepreneurship with mainstream industrialisation and entrepreneurship,” he said.
In his welcome speech, Wahiduddin said there is a gap between loans from mainstream banks and the microcredit system. In recent times, there is a trend of upsizing microcredits with large loan offers. If the mainstream banking sector starts microlending, the gap between the two will be eliminated, he said.
Citi Country Officer in Bangladesh Mamun Rashid, and Founder Executive Director of Shakti Foundation for Disabled Women Humaira Islam also spoke at the event jointly organised by Citibank NA Bangladesh, and Shakti Foundation.
The Daily Star, the Prothom Alo, Channel i, Radio Today and Dhaka Sheraton were partner organisations in the programme.
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