Rural Development Scheme of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited: An Analysis as an Alternative Microfinancc Program

Abstract

The Rural Development Scheme (RDS) of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (fBBL) was introduced in 1995 with the objective of eradicating poverty and to involve the largest number of village-living poor folks to create opportunity for income generation and employment of the rural poor. RDS, despite its limitations, has proven itself as an alternative microjinance program to the conventional microfinance providers and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh. This paper, following a comparative methodology, aims at analyzing the success and failure of the RDS of fBBL throughout the past few years, and testing its effectiveness as an alternative to the conventional micro finance programs which are mainly based on interest-bearing loans.