Shohoz Shonchoy's Product 9: Latest Findings, April 2009
Client recruitment:
Recruitment began, slowly, in March 2007. By end March 2009 340
clients had opened accounts, of whom only ten have subsequently closed
them. The median account-opening date was March 2008, so the median age
of accounts at end March 2009 was 12 months.
Who are these clients? They are all from Hrishipara
or nearby neighbourhoods, or run small stalls in the nearby Kapasia
market. There are roughly equal numbers of men and women. Most are poor
or very poor, with some middle-income. Descriptions of the households,
occupations and incomes of the clients are available from me at
stuart@safesave.org
Client financial behaviour: Clients have engaged in
intensive transactions - more than I had anticipated. Between them they
have taken 1,154 loans - an average of more than three-and-a-half each in a median
period of 12 months. Thus, the typical client has moved through the
2000, 3000 and 5000 taka level loans, saving a minimum of 3,300 taka.
Of the 330 active clients only 64 are still on their entry-level 2000 taka
loan, and of those 64 all but a handful opened their acccouts very
recently. 36 clients have reached the 9000 taka level or higher. One
client reached the 20,000 taka level after only a few months. Only a few top-ups have been taken.
Altogether, these 330 clients have borrowed loans totalling 4,026,190
taka (about $US68,000) and have repaid more than two-thirds of this
amount, leaving a net loan-outstanding portfolio at Shohoz of 1,000,817
taka ($14,700). Meanwhile the clients have saved a total of 1,341,689
taka ($22,600) and withdrawn very little of that, so that the savings
balance held by Shohoz Shonchoy stands at 1,087,205 taka ($16,000) -
already greater than the loan outstanding balance.
Implications for the business plan: I began P9 by
injecting just $2,900 - and this has proved enough to allow us to
lend loans worth a total of $68,000 to 330 of the
world's poorest people, and that in turn allowed them to amass
$22,600 of savings. After paying for all costs, we are
currently losing a modest sum each month, but the figure is coming down and
it is no longer seen as impossible that, as the saving surplus builds
up and we earn bank interest on it, we may in a year or two prove able
to cover all our costs in full.
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