International Development: High interest charged by NGOs hit poor in Bangladesh

The New Nation (Bangladesh) reports that Finance and Planning Minister Saifur Rahman, has said that high interests charged by major NGOs for micro-credit defeats the whole purpose of such loans.

Without giving details he claimed that Grameen, BRAC and Asa were "creating loan pyramids" through back-to-back lending to the poor-giving them one loan after another in a cycle.He also said that NGOs charge as high as 22 percent