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Grameen Koota Financial Services Pvt. Ltd.

Home Grameen Koota Financial Services Pvt. Ltd.
Updated: 28-06-2022 07:16:06 AM

Grameen Koota Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. was established with the objective of providing affordable and timely credit to the country’s low-income and poor households. In December, 1996, Mrs. Vinatha M Reddy visualized Grameen Koota after being inspired by Alex Counts’ book, “Give Us Credit”. Alex Count was the CEO and President of Grameen Foundations USA and he in his book wrote about commendable stories of the poor people of Bangladesh who used micro-credit and raised themselves above poverty during the microfinance movement led by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus.

Grameen Koota started in May 1999 as a project under a NGO from South Bangalore called T Muniswamappa Trust (TMT). The seed capital was offered by Grameen Trust, Bangladesh to replicate the microfinance model of Grameen Bank Bangladesh.

The lending methodology of Grameen Bank was adapted by Grameen Koota and it was adapted as per the requirements of the Indian market. The company essentially offers various services like collateral loans to women having low-income and from poor households. The main ideology of Grameen Koota is to create and provide equal opportunities and help in developing the poor of both  rural and urban areas. With the help of the loans offered, the customers will be able to get into a position that will improve their standard of living and help them come out of poverty. The endeavor of the organization was  to create a class of financially literate and mature women entrepreneurs and it has successfully managed to do so.

Women of the Indian society are vital for the socio-economic environment of the family, community and the country.  Therefore, Grameen Koota bank targets women as it has been proven that in comparision to men, women can use resources in a more productive manner. The organization aims to make the women financially sound and effectively participate in the development of the community and family.

Till the year 2007, Grameen Koota ran as an NGO but post that it became a well-regulated Non-Banking Financial Institution which in 2013 became a governed and regulated Non-Banking Financial Company-Micro Finance Institution as per the Reserve Bank of India. Grameen Koota Financial Service Private Limited works with the operating brand name of Grameen Koota.

The company in its attempt to provide help at every stage of life of its clients provides a wide range of financial and non-financial products and services. Keeping in mind the opinion of the staff and the feedback from clients, the organization periodically modifies its products and services.

Vision of Grameen Koota
Mission of Grameen Koota
Core Values

Vision of Grameen Koota

The vision of the organization is to provide development services and financial products to more than two million poor and low income families by 2020 and thus, bring about a social and economic change.

Mission of Grameen Koota

The organization functions to provide low income and poor households with micro finance and other developmental services. In order to become a friendly, sustainable and trustworthy service provider it offers need based and affordable services.

Core Values

Grameen Koota works with the objective of offering  services and financial products so as to bring about an economic and social change in the country. The word CREATE is an essence of their philosophy and their values.

CREATE stands for-

Committed: The company believes in fulfilling all their commitments and work towards their mission in a committed way.

Reliable: The company sticks to their policies and procedures and does not deviate from them.
Empathetic: They work to provide the best services to their customers and understand their circumstances and situations and provide adequate support.

Accountable: The company is accountable for all their actions, deeds and words.

Transparent: Full disclosures are provided to clients in terms of fees and services. All reports, financial statements and accounts are prepared in the most comprehensive manner.

Efficient: The team at Grameen Koota is disciplined and punctual and works to reduce operational costs thus, trying to provide cost effective solutions to their customers.

Products and Services

Products and Services

Financial Products

Credit

Income Generation Loans

The purpose of this loan is to provide support to clients for income enhancement activities and to provide capital to business enterprises. The loan can be used to buy machinery or fixed assets and to meet the increasing requirements of working capital of the business. Loan amount granted under this scheme can go up to Rs. 45,000 and the interest charged is 22% per annum on the reducing balance. Depending on the loan amount, the loan is given for a period of 52 to 104 weeks.

Home Improvement Loans

Home improvement loans are provided by Grameen Koota to its clients for them to be able to construct toilets, get water connection, extend and improve their houses by replacing wall, roof, floor, adding kitchen or a room etc. The amount of loan given varies between Rs. 5000 to Rs. 25000 depending on the purpose and the interest charged is 18% per annum on reducing balance. The loan is offered for a period of 52 weeks to 208 weeks.

Emergency Loans

Short term emergency loans are provided to customers to help them meet short term constraints of cash flow and to manage emergencies. When timely help is available to the low income and poor households, they do not resort to informal and expensive sources of money and add on to their problems. In order to be able to handle an emergency, a loan amount of up to Rs. 1000 is given at 18% per annum rate of interest on reducing balance and for a period of maximum 3 months.

Family Welfare Loans

These loans are provided to customers to help them improve their quality of life and these include to give money to fulfill their consumption needs like LPG connections, buying stove, water purifiers, bicycles, solar lights, to pay for the fees of their children or for medical reasons or to help them at the time of festivals.

Loan amounts between Rs. 1000 to Rs. 10000 is given and at a rate of 18% per annum on reducing balance for a period of 12 to 52 weeks.

Home Construction Loans

The most important step that has to be implemented in order to improve quality of life and to empower the poor and low income households in rural areas is to help them in construction of houses. Grameen Koota has a tie up with Swarna Pragati Housing Microfinance Private Limited and under this scheme, they provide loans to extend houses and also for construction of houses in the rural areas. The loan amount under this scheme varies between Rs.25000 to Rs. 200000 at a rate of interest of 22% per annum on reducing balance and for a period of 104 to 260 weeks depending on the loan amount.

Insurance Products

Life Insurance

Grameen Koota provides life insurance coverage to its members and their spouses under the group term life insurance for which it has tied up with Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company, Shriram Life Insurance Company Limited and Kotak Life Insurance Company Limited. The member and the spouse can get a maximum insurance of up to Rs.45000 under this scheme.

Healthcare Insurance

In an endeavor to provide quality and affordable healthcare services to its customers, Grameen Koota has tied up with different institutions like M.D. Sachidananda Murthy Hospitals. Under this scheme, the customers of the company get medical consultation at low cost and also cashless for patient treatment at any of the hospitals in the network. With availability of high quality medical services, the members are in a position to improve their health standards and also avoid any financial troubles that arise due to sudden hospitalization or other health problems.

Non-Financial Services

Social Awareness Campaigns

Grameen Koota strongly believes in educating its customers. The company conducts various social awareness campaigns as a part of its micro credit plus activities. They tackle relevant issues like health, AIDS, family planning etc. and conduct these workshops annually in different areas. They also tie up with different organizations to be able to provide more benefits to the customers of the organization like insurance, pension and developmental programs. The company has conducted more than 700 such workshops in different areas till date and in 88 social awareness campaigns were organized in 2015-16.

WatSan Program

Navya Disha is a NGO and Grameen Koota, with their help ensures that all their customers lead a hygienic and healthy life. In association with water.org, Navya Disha has been working on the implementation of water and sanitation program since 2009 in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Under this campaign, clients are encouraged to have their own water connections, construct their own toilets, ensure safe disposal of waste and to build rainwater harvesting systems. Mason trainings are also provided to masons to build affordable and low cost models of sanitation. Hygienic practices are encouraged and training workshops are conducted for the same.

Jagruti

Jagruti is an awareness building program and was started with the aim of making the customers of the organization well informed. Various subjects are handled under this program ranging from food to health to education to nutrition to sanitation to hygiene to government facilities and services to money management. All these subjects create a lasting and measurable effect on the customers and gives them new insights and perspectives. This helps them in making them more aware and helps them in uplifting.

The program has been so designed that the clients of the bank can relate to it. Jagruti has been created as a virtual character who come from the same background as the clients of the company and who face similar problems as them. On a weekly basis, a letter from Jagruti is read out at the Kendra meeting. Over 181 branches have implemented this program in Maharashtra and Karnataka covering more than 150 topics and educating more than one million members. This program not only educates women on various topics but also makes them aware of different facilities provided by the government and helps them avail them and improve their quality of life.

National Pension Scheme- Swavalamban

In 2009, the government of India launched the National Pension Scheme to help citizens save a portion of their income to help them after retirement. NPS Swavalamban was launched to extend the coverage of NPS to the economically weaker sections of the society by helping them save small amount during their working years so that they can live comfortably later.

Grameen Koota is an aggregator of the NPS and has tied up with the government to help its clients in a better way. During the meetings, the amounts are collected from clients. This makes them aware of the facilities provided by the government and also makes it more convenient to them. There is no fixed deposit that has to be made and the amount can be decided as per the financial capacity of the depositor. To get a decent pension, clients need to invest continually. Training sessions are also given to help them understand the scheme and its benefits in a better way.

Healthcare Program

Grameen Koota, as a part of its social goal and with a tie up with M.D. Sachidananda Murthy Hospitals provides health insurance to its clients and their families. High quality medical consultations are provided under this scheme with cashless treatment in times of hospitalization in the network hospitals, thus providing good medical facilities and improving their health standards. 102392 customers and their families were supported by Grameen Koota under this scheme in 2014-15.

Health Camps

To inculcate healthy habits, health camps are conducted regularly to improve healthy living standards of clients and their families. This ensures better health standards which avoids hospitalization and also avoids sudden expenses and them resorting to informal sources of money.
Grameen Koota has helped uplift many poor and low income households by providing basic and good quality products and services. All these are specially designed to suit their needs and requirements and help them in the most suitable way to improve their quality of life.

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