Grameen II's Membership

This note examines the reasons for the rapid and accelerating growth of membership of Grameen II. The note:

• Looks at the reasons for this growth;
• Reviews Grameen's membership policies;
• Offers observations on the composition of the membership.

It offers the following reasons for the rapid growth in membership:

• Success of deposit services;
• Increase in cash resources;
• Attractive products;
• The success of microcredit in Bangladesh.

The note reviews Grameen's original membership policies and finds that it:

• Is targeted at women from poor rural households;
• Submits candidates for membership to a means test;
• Trains workers to identify the poor and very poor and motivate them to join;
• Designs products that are attractive to the poor and not attractive to the non-poor.

It identifies the following three trends in membership:

• Very poor members stay with Grameen II;
• Members who leave fall into two categories:
  • Successful members who no longer need the services;
  • Members from very poor households who are unable to meet the weekly repayment schedules;
• Workers are under pressure to recruit new members, making it hard for them to exclude the non-poor.

The paper concludes that although Grameen's membership policies are being challenged, they will most probably survive. This is demonstrated by the fact that most new members comply with the means test.