The Bangladesh Bank has said the apparel factories of BGMEA and BKMEA members would get highest Tk 10 crore each in pre-finance from a JICA project to reconstruct risky industrial buildings, purchase equipment required for workplace safety and relocate the factories.
The apparel factories of BGMEA and BKMEA members having 100-2000 employees would qualify for getting pre-finance from a Tk 500-crore Japan International Cooperation Agency fund which is now being used for a project titled ‘financial sector project for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises’, according to a BB circular issued on Tuesday.
The central bank issued the circular to managing directors and chief executive officers of all banks and non-bank financial institutions which had signed participation agreements with the JICA project. The circular said from now on the banks and the NBFIs would be able to apply to the central bank to receive the pre-finance from the JICA fund.
The JICA fund comes when the country’s RMG sector is facing severe criticism all over the world after the Rana Plaza collapse at Savar in April this year. More than 1,100 people, most of them garment workers, were killed in the building collapse.
After the building collapse, a BB official said the JICA had announced to give the fund.
The central bank and four other organisations earlier signed an agreement on disbursing Tk 100 crore to be given by the JICA in loan from its Tk 500 crore fund for improving the working condition in the country’s readymade garment units.
Under the pre-finance, the banks and the NBFIs will be able to receive fund from the JICA project before disbursing the fund to the industries, the official said.
The BB circular also said from now on the micro enterprises would be able to take at least Tk 2 lakh as sub-loan from the JICA fund instead of Tk 5 lakh.
Under the sub-loan, the banks and the NBFIs have to disburse credit to the clients along with the refinance fund.
The BB official said that a number of micro entrepreneurs had earlier shown reluctance to take loan of Tk 5 lakh due to small volume of their business.
For this reason, the BB has lowered the lowest limit of the loan, he said.
The central bank, however, kept the highest ceiling of the loan at Tk 5 crore.
-With New Age input
