Village Phones

Grameen Bank members have entered the age of information technology by leasing and purchasing cellular phones. They receive special loans from the Bank to purchase of cell phones. Those who have begun to operate such phones are now popularly known as the village phone ladies. By the end of 2002, there were more than twenty-one thousand village phone loanees who have together taken loans amounting to Tk. 321.13 million. Average loan size is about Tk. 15,000. During the year nearly 13,000 new loans were distributed and connections provided to as many cell phones in the villages.

Tele-density in Bangladesh is very low. Telephone services are not available in most of villages of the country. Demand for telephone services operated by the village phone ladies is, therefore, very high. Grameen Bank in collaboration with Grameen Telecom, a not-for-profit company, will lease finance nearly 23,000 new phones to its members during the next year.

 

The village phone ladies of Grameen Bank their telephone services to earn additional income, which is almost double that of the per capita national income. Zone-wise statistics of village phones financed through the Bank’s lending programme, are given below :

Progress of Village Phones up to December, 2002.