Grameen Koota is a micro-finance institution that is making waves among rural women in five states of the country. What is unique about the organization? Udaya Kumar, MD and CEO, outlines its activities:
Udaya Kumar
Gowramma is a typical Karnataka villager at one time depending on the earnings of her tractor driver husband. She had no means of earning on her own until she joined a joint liability group (JLG) attached to Grameen Koota about 9 years ago, and obtained a loan to buy a goat. She repaid the loan and Grameen Koota, realizing her earnestness in repayments, sanctioned her subsequent loans to buy goats as well as to build a shed for the goats. Today, she owns 18 goats, each valued at `4000. She has also been selling them and now intends to expand the farm. In peak seasons, her goats fetch her as much as `15,000. Things are indeed looking rosy for her.
Similar is the case with Mangalamma, who is 32 and hailing from Halagur village in Mandya district. She has been rearing silk worms before she joined a JLG attached to Grameen Koota and got a loan to buy a cow. Her business too has flourished with more loans from the MFI and more number of cows, buffaloes, goats and sheep as well as a flourishing sericulture business.
“We have over the period helped develop a class of mature and financially literate women entrepreneurs who have benefitted from the group lending model,” says Udaya Kumar, MD and CEO of Grameen Koota. “Today, we offer a multitude of both financial and non-financial products and services to cater to every life cycle need of our clients. We have always focused on low income households engaged in economic activity with limited access to formal financial services. Our vision and mission emphasizes value to customers by following various objectives such as responsible pricing for the products, appropriate process to ensure convenient delivery to customers, not to over burden the customers with higher repayments, customer affordability to take the product and their ability to repay without stress,” he adds.
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