Credit utilization behaviour of the women beneficiaries of bangladesh rural development board

Abstract

Abstract : The study was conducted at Rangpur Sadar, Mithapukur and Pirganj Upazila branch of Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) under Rangpur district. The objectives of the study were to i) study the characteristics profile of the women borrowers of BRDB ii) determine the extent of credit utilization of the women borrowers of BRDB, and iii) explore the relationship between each of the characteristics of the borrowers’ and their extent of credit utilization. A total number of 1126 borrowers constituted the population of which a sample of 120 (12%) were selected using simple random sampling technique for this study. Data were collected by personal interviewing during 14 August to 13 September 2005. The findings revealed that a significant proportion of the borrowers (65.83 percent) made "full utilization" of their credit while 17.50 percent of them made "partial utilization" in the eight-assigned sectors. But the remaining 16.67 percent did not have any utilization of their credit. Based on the sector wise utilization of credit, the study further reveals that credit assigned for cottage industry was ranked first followed by tailoring, goat rearing, rice threshing, vegetable cultivation, rearing of milching cow, beef fattening and poultry rearing. Regarding the impact, most of the borrowers (88.33%) opined that the credit received from BRDB was profitable. Borrowers' characteristics viz., age, training experience, credit availability, cosmopoliteness were found to have a significant relationship with the utilization of credit.