Membangun Peradaban Bersama Rakyat

CU for Community Empowerment

Although the distribution of People’s Business Credit (KUR) has not touched this village, the residents of Dusun II Namo Buah, Silebo-lebo Village, Kutalimbaru District, Deliserdang Regency are not discouraged to keep trying. Starting from seven farmers and poultry farmers since 20 years ago to form a cooperative, the community in this village can now enjoy their hard work until 2003 when the Aman Damai Credit Union (CU) was officially established.

Musim Ketaren, Treasurer of CU Aman Damai, admits that establishing a village financial institution is actually not that difficult. After gaining the trust of the community, now this cooperative has 321 members, the majority of whom work as farmers.

“It is different from banking, but in terms of systems and management, it remains professional. There is no target member and qualification for how long a new member joins can borrow large amounts of money. The important thing is to believe and be honest, we will definitely give it, “he said to MedanBisnis, Sunday (22/4).

From this, the cooperative under the auspices of the Bitra Indonesia Foundation has so far managed a fund of Rp 2.8 billion. A relatively large number for the cooperative class which is located very far from the city. In fact, according to Musim’s narrative, in 2011 this cooperative made a profit (residual income/SHU) of Rp. 198 million.

Asked how to join, Musim, who was accompanied by Restu Aprianta Tarigan as the companion of CU Aman Damai, said it was very easy. When entering a member, an administrative fee of IDR 10,000 is charged and a principal deposit of IDR 20,000 and mandatory savings of IDR 20,000.

Furthermore, members are only required to pay a mandatory deposit of IDR 20,000 per month. For members who want to borrow money, this cooperative itself has a mutually agreed mechanism, namely a minimum of three months after joining the new member may borrow money, less than that time other members and cooperative management do not allow it.
“We are implementing a 1×3 system. This means that if a member’s funds in the cooperative are Rp. 1 million, then he or she may borrow Rp. 3 million and so on. At first the loans made by members were not too big, but now they are very different, some of them have dared to borrow Rp. 20 million and we will expand it to reach a loan figure of Rp. 50 million per person, “he said.

He added that the length of repayment of loans by members is not much different from that of banks, which is 10-30 months or depending on the ability and agreement between members and cooperatives. Although unfamiliar with the term Non-Performing Loan (NPL), people within the cooperative are quick to say that there are very few bad loans. It is recorded from the data that they have bad credit only around 0.4%, of the credit they provide.

“In the past there was a national bank that asked us to cooperate and we refused. It is better to walk in a family way and there are no strict rules. Cooperatives are essentially fairer than banks,” said Musim while admitting that the cooperative now has 12 staff.

Research Manager for Development Information Communication and Technology of the Bitra Indonesia Foundation, Iswan Kaputra, explained that CU Aman Damai is a foster partner of the foundation they manage. There are 38 CUs that they have fostered in areas such as Langkat, Binjai, Deliserdang, Serdang Bedagai and Labuhan Batu Utara. “Essentially we provide technical and institutional consultation with training practices that are routinely carried out every month. We hope that the existence of CU can strengthen the existence of cooperatives in the village without the intervention of banks, which is not profitable at all for the marginalized community, “he said.

Iswan continued, this year they are targeting to build 10 new CUs in several other areas. The conditions are almost the same, the areas that will be included in the Bitra work program must be dominated by marginalized communities or low incomes.
He admitted that Bitra first introduced Credit Unions in 1986 in the Serdang Bedagai area and now they are independent and do not need to be monitored like other CUs.

Iswan said, in addition to actively carrying out this activity, Bitra also has several programs such as land and environmental advocacy, community development, agriculture in harmony with nature, alternative health, joint marketing with farming. (Dewantoro).

Source: www.medanbisnisdaily.com