Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Grameen Bank (GB) has got nine new borrower-directors following the elections of its board. The election was held as per the rules, officials said.
The three-tier election of the microcredit lender, funded by Prof. Muhammad Yunus, was held at branch, area and zonal level from March August 31 to September 20, according to a report on completion of GB’s director election.
The report was sent to the Financial Institutions Division (FID), under the Ministry of Finance, last week by managing director of state-owned Karmasangsthan Bank Md Abdul Mannan who acted as the chief election commissioner (CEC). The Ministry of Finance appointed Mannan as the CEC on July 19 this year and the commission was formed on July 25 after the board nominated Md Abul Bashar Chowdhury and Anwar Hossain Akond, both general managers of Grameen Bank, as commissioners.
According to the report, the branch level election was held on August 31, area level on September 9 and zonal level on September 20. The number of branch level voters was 96,87,505, 2,528 in area leave and in 2,69 zonal level. The nine directors, all women, were elected through the zonal level election on September 20.
Hosne Ara was elected from Chittagong zone, Hasina Begum from Comilla, Sanowara from Sylhet, Monowara from Mymensingh, Shikha Rani Das from Tangail, Nurunnahar from Rangpur, Sufia Begum from Bogra, Jahan Ara from Jessore and Manoshi Saha from Barishal, according to the report.
Prior to this, a total of 96,87,505 members/voters exercised their voting rights by electing 1,36,409 of their representatives. This election was completed by March-April. “GB’s board election was completed fairly on time as per its election code. The election was held across the country in a period of one and half months with spontaneous participations of the voters,” Dr. AKM Saiful Majid, Chairman, board of directors, of the Nobel Prize winning organization told The New Nation yesterday.
He added, “The election commission handed over the result to me on September 22 on completion of the election. The meeting of the board along with nine new directors will be held on the first week of October.”
The GB board is a 13-member body. Nine members are directly elected by shareholders and borrowers, while the rest, including the chairman, are nominated by the government.
The managing director is also a member of the board as an ex-officio member.
GB, the bank for the poor, earned Tk 488 operating profit, the highest in its history. It later set aside 1 per cent of the profit (Tk 134 crore) as reserve fund in line with a Bangladesh Bank directive, said Dr Majid.
The government owns 25 per cent share of the microcredit lender, while the rest is owned by the borrower-shareholders.
Grameen Bank and Prof. Muhammad Yunus win Nobel Prize 2006.
As of August 2021, GB has 9.41 million members, 97 percent of whom are women. With 2,568 branches, GB provides services in 81,678 villages, covering more than 93 per cent of the total villages in Bangladesh, according to the bank’s website.
