Bangladesh Bank will take punitive action against scheduled banks and non-bank financial institutions if any of them failed to set up a dedicated desk for woman entrepreneurs in SME sector separately in each of their branches within May 16, said officials of the central bank. The BB will issue a letter tomorrow to this end to managing directors and chief executive officers of all banks and NBFIs asking them to set up woman entrepreneurs’ dedicated desk in a bid to stimulate the financing to the sector, a BB official told New Age on Thursday.
He said that setting up of dedicated desk for woman entrepreneurs was made mandatory but many of the banks were yet to set up the desk in their head office and branches.
‘The central bank’s inspection teams visited different branches of the scheduled banks in eight districts in February for scrutinising their SME loan programme. The teams found that most of the branches had no dedicated desk for woman entrepreneurs,’ he said.
According to the BB letter which will be posted to the banks and NBFIs, some banks are even yet to set up the woman entrepreneurs’ desk in their head offices.
Majority of the banks have not taken initiative to set up the woman entrepreneur desk in their all branches, he said.
Some officials of the banks who are assigned to the SME dedicated desk has not taken special training to boost up the sector, another BB official said.
Moreover, a number of banks have appointed only one official for conducting the SME activities resulting that the entrepreneurs of the small and medium enterprises are not getting adequate help from the banks, he said.
The BB has already asked the banks and NBFIs a number of times to take necessary measures in the issue in a bid to stimulate the financing to the SME, but most of them are yet to take any step in the issue, he said.
Under the circumstances, the BB is going to take stern action against the banks and NBFIs if any of them failed to set up a dedicated desk for woman entrepreneurs of SME sector in each of their branches within May 16, he said.
BB general manager Sukumal Sinha Chowdhury told New Age that the banks and NBFIs had earlier been warned that central bank would impose financial penalty on the organisation which would not set up dedicated desks for woman entrepreneurs.
But, the banks and the NBFIs have not fulfilled the BB compliances to boost up the SME financing, he said.
‘We asked the banks and the NBFIs to exhibit the focal officials’ names of the woman entrepreneur desk and their phone numbers on a board, but many of them ignored it.’
The central bank is promoting the issue so that the country’s woman entrepreneurs can get loan from the banking sector without any hazard, he said.
-With New Age input
