ASA Experience

This case study outlines the progress made by ASA (Association for Social Advancement) in Bangladesh despite several limiting factors. ASA visualizes itself as a financial intermediary. It has developed into a sustainable microfinance institution offering credit and saving products and does not primarily depend on donors.

The ASA methodology is to work through individual liabilities and implement flexible saving and credit programs. It uses savings to fund further capital generation and regularly does the financial analysis of the program.

The paper lists the following impacts of ASA's Credit and Savings Program:

• Savings by the poor;
• Increase in status;
• Gender empowerment.

ASA identifies some problems in running microfinance program:

• Legal lacunae;
• Change in organization structure to inspire trust;
• Fixed time frame for savings collection;
• High cost of fund mobilization;
• Defaults by fly-by-night operators;
• Conduction of credit and saving program in the same meeting.

The author states some solutions for overcoming these problems:

• Imposing the law;
• Targeting poor and middle class people with confidence building measures;
• Offering anytime saving flexibility;
• Conducting savings and credit collections separately.

The case study gives a few recommendations on training, education and capacity building and concludes that ASA has managed to succeed because of:

• Decentralizing and diversifying field-level management;
• Adopting innovative policies;
• Offering flexible savings services;
• Providing both credit and savings services;
• Attaining and developing skilled manpower.