Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) plays a crucial role in microfinance sector that is highly appreciated at home and abroad. This publication provides the latest upazila-wise (subdistrict-wise) microfinance picture of the entire country whereas our previous volume entitled “Maps on Microcredit Coverage in Bangladesh” published in June 2003 provided district-wise data on Microcredit Programmes. PKSF-POs, other MFIs, government departments, specialized organizations and Banks have been included in the present volume.

Up to June 2003 all the reported MFIs have disbursed Tk. 442316.01 million and their loan outstanding is Tk. 61600.88 million with reported gross coverage of 12921368 borrowers while the reported Banks have disbursed Tk. 66499.05 million and their loan outstanding is Tk. 19031.18 million with gross coverage of 2253561 borrowers. On the basis of verification by PKSF, overlapping has been found to be 33%. After adjusting the overlapping, in accordance with that verification, the effective coverage of MFIs stands at 8657316 borrowers.

We hope, this effort will be useful to implement various development programmes of the government, donors, NGOs and other organizations for poverty alleviation. This publication has been prepared amidst a range of constraints that may have caused some errors and omissions. To make this document more up-to-date and qualitatively rich, suggestions from readers/researchers/practitioners as well as concerned organizations/agencies are welcome.

Caution must be taken in using the data here to exclude or include one geographical area on the basis of average picture of overlapping. In some growth centers, upazila headquarters and peri-urban areas, the concentration of MFI activities may be seen and in some of these areas within an upazila overlapping may be substantially higher than the average figure of that upazila. There may be some remote areas in a particular upazila where microfinance coverage is thin, though the global figures of overlapping of that upzila may be high. PKSF is considering to conduct intensive study in some of the high concentrated areas of microcredit. A more detailed study at a disaggregate levels (union, village) may be done on sample basis to get a more reliable picture.

We are thankful to all who have extended co-operation in furnishing data for this volume. Thanks to PKSF officials particularly Md. Fazlul Kader, Deputy General Manager, Muhammad Firoz Zaman, Assistant Manager, Mohammad Monir Hasan, Officer for their relentless and painstaking efforts in collecting and compiling data and preparing this publication.