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"id": 246893,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/246893/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Oloo-Aringo",
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"speaker": {
"id": 358,
"legal_name": "Peter Oloo Aringo",
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"content": "Being the disadvantaged people within the framework of some organisation format which they can understand, operate and find their economic strength through mutual support, this bank will reverse the age-old vicious cycle of low income, low savings and investments into an expansionary system of low income and access to credit. This will ensure that they invest more of that income to get more credit and, therefore, make more investments, leading to more income. That is the way to abolish poverty. It is not through the World Bank's prescription but through our own initiative and using our own institutions. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, initially the project started in a village, that is the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, but it spread out. He went to the streets to look for beggars and giving them some money with which to start business. That is how he has got beggars out of the streets. We say they are not creditworthy! However, we must, first, trust them with some money. He has found that, indeed, the most creditworthy people are the poor because they have nowhere to turn to. They know that their livelihood depends on the success of using that money, multiplying it, investing and, therefore, reaping the benefit of their own development and growth. What are some of the lessons that we have learnt from all these? It is possible, therefore, to reverse the conventional banking system wisdom by removing collateral requirements and create a successful banking system. The demand for collateral is crazy! If somebody, as I said, has his village and homestead, that is enough. He has nowhere else to go. Invariably, they want to repay the money so that they can get the next loan. Banking this on mutual trust, strict supervision, accountability, participation and creativity can achieve the most harmonious commercial June 14, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1340 relationship. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, credit is a powerful weapon and a fundamental human right. The more credit one can access, the more resources he can command and the more assertive he can become. He can, therefore, discover his own dignity. Poverty impinges on our dignity. Until we give these people access to credit so that they can invest it, we are undermining the human dignity of the poor. We are creating a different species of people. In fact, poverty can create a different species of people where people are so poor that they are not human any more in desperation. The collateral-based convention format denies the right to credit for the poor people which, in turn, dispossess them in their fight against economic and social odds. With its effective use, it creates the basis for economic emancipation of the poor. If you ask me what thesis I am developing in economics, it is the \"formalisation of the informal sector\". Once we do so, this country will be liberated from poverty. That is what the new industrial states of South East Asia have done. Nobody is left behind; people are moving forward together. The transformation of our country, therefore, must address the problem of conceptualisation failure. We have failed to conceptualise and lead the people. As leaders, we are reproducing textbooks on economics, day in, day out, and they are leading us nowhere. We must follow the example of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh because it has shown us that we can trust the poor with credit. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the shift in paradigm, therefore, must be in empowerment of the people, especially the poor and the marginalised. The majority of the marginalised are our womenfolk. They are working so hard, but have very little to show for it. That must be addressed! It can only be addressed through micro-credit. If we nurture the basic human discipline and sense of creativity, give it guarantee, the conventional banking wisdom can only amplify our credit. There is nothing wrong, for example, with the conventional banks investing in these micro-credit for the benefit of the poor. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to move. I would also like to ask my very good colleague, Mr. Osundwa, to second."
}