Measuring the Impact of BRAC Microfinance Operations: A Case Study of a Village

Abstract

The study attempted to measure the impact of BRAC microfinance operations on the livelihood of the borrowers of a sample village. With the purpose of measuring the impact of microfinance, randomly 208 people having minimum three-year attachment with BRAC microfinance operations were selected from a village. Primary data were collected by a semi-structured questionnaire, and both qualitative and quantitative data were used to assess the efficacy of microfinance operations. Findings of the study suggest that the overall impact of microfinance operations is positive. Borrower’s income and their contribution to the family expenditures increased significantly after joining BRAC. However, the income increased shows that the borrowers have been able to intersect only the extreme poverty line while the moderate poverty line is yet to be exceeded. On the other hand, there is a moderate impact observed in the creation of employment opportunity. In addition, the sample clients have been able fairly to employ themselves into self-employment activities which generate higher income. However, impact on savings and improvement of borrowers’ dwelling house’s condition is less significant. The volume of monthly savings is not significant, but the attitude of the borrowers towards savings is noticeable.