The USAID on Sunday signed an agreement with the BRAC Bank for providing $5 million (Tk 40 crore) loans to small and medium entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector in Bangladesh.
Under this partnership, America will guarantee 50 per cent of each loan, said the U.S. Ambassador Dan Mozena at the signing ceremony at the American Recreation Association in the capital.
Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director and chief executive officer of BRAC Bank,
Kazi Obaidur Rahman, joint secretary of the ministry of agriculture, and Richard Greene, mission director of USAID, Bangladesh, attended the programme.
Mozena said the partnership between the USAID and the BRAC would enable the latter to provide the loans to the targeted entrepreneurs at affordable rates.
The agreement is also included under the America’s Feed the Future partnership with the government of Bangladesh.
Mozena hoped that the credit program would help the farmers and the businessmen in southern Bangladesh.
With access to loans of up to Tk ten lakh or about $13,000 each at an affordable rate of interest, the small businesses can make available ample supplies of high yielding, saline or drought resistant seeds and ample stocks of fish or shrimp fry, he said.
-With New Age input
