The much overdue election for Grameen Bank's board, which the award-winning microlender has been soliciting for long for smooth running of its activities, will take place soon, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday.

“The schedule for the election has already been prepared. I think a new board will be there before our [the government] term ends,” he told reporters at the secretariat.

Three government-appointed directors have been running the bank since February 2015 after the tenure of the nine elected directors came to an end.

Although the rules for election of directors were changed in April 2014 no election has taken place since.

This led K Mozammel Haque, chairman of Grameen Bank, to write to the finance ministry in July to seek approval to conduct an election following the rules it has since its inception.

Many important tasks remain stuck at a financial organisation if there is an absence of a full board for a long time, and this disrupts the running of all activities in a disciplined way, Haque said in the letter.

The board is a 12-member body. Nine board members are directly elected by shareholders and borrowers of the bank, while the rest, including the chairman, are nominated by the government.

Muhith also said in the past Grameen Bank used to shell out a lot of subsidies in order to carry out its lending activities.

“Now the situation has changed. The borrowers take loans from Grameen Bank to open and run micro and small enterprises. As a result, Grameen Bank is now making profit. This is a very important indicator of social change in Bangladesh,” he said.

Grameen Bank's acting managing director Ratan Kumar Nag yesterday handed a cheque of Tk 6.17 crore to Muhith for 2016 against the government's investment in the microlender.

As of 2016, the government invested Tk 20.58 crore and reaped dividends of Tk 25.23 crore, according to a statement of the bank yesterday.

The bank clocked Tk 139 crore in net profits last year.