The Daily Costs of Debt: Problematising Repayment

This article looks at how poor people in Bangladesh repay their microfinance loans, and how repayments affect their lives. It draws upon the quantitative and qualitative insights gained from a large community survey and from interviews and focus groups with villagers and MFI credit officers. The survey covered 490 households and 4,022 villagers in four villages in Bangladesh over the course of a year. For the large majority of respondents, repaying loans was a daily struggle. Although the loans were of relatively low value, ranging from $26 to $77, the terms and structure of repayment placed a huge challenge on household financial management.