Small and medium entrepreneurs on Saturday described their problems including higher bank interest rate and processing fees in getting SME loan from banks and requested the Bangladesh Bank to take steps for lowering the rate and fees.
They also illustrated their stories of how they had turned their little enterprises into a big initiative that changed their lives and livelihood.
At an SME entrepreneurs’ conference held in Dhaka, they also requested the authorities to disburse the loan timely and make the disbursement process easy.
BRAC Bank, the country’s largest SME loan distributing bank, organised the first-ever and largest SME entrepreneurs’ conference at Shaheed Suhrawardy Indoor Stadium at Mirpur where more than 14,00 small and medium entrepreneurs attended from across the country.
BRAC Bank rewarded six entrepreneurs in categories of women entrepreneurs and creative entrepreneurs while another seven entrepreneurs were honoured with ‘trust award’ for taking SME loan first when the bank had introduced it.
Sharing experiences of SME loan, Shahjalal Pradhan, an entrepreneur from Gobindaganj upazila in Gaibandha, alleged that the interest rate and processing fees in getting SME loan were very high.
Mohammad Alam from Chandpur said the SME sector would flourish if the interest rate and processing fees in getting loan were lowered.
Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman, who was chief guest at the conference, said that SME sector was the most important for balanced economic development as more than 90 per cent business enterprises in the country were from SME sector.
In reply to a query regarding higher interest rate on SME loan, he said that central bank was working on how to reduce the rate and had taken some initiatives such as lowering provisioning for SME loan, introduction of refinancing scheme to reduce the interest rate.
‘The bank rate on SME loan will reduce when other banks come forward to disburse such loan and depositors will seek lower interest rate. So you as a depositor will have to seek low rate on your deposit,’ he said.
He said that the central bank had taken an initiative to develop an SME database for development of the sector.
The BB has also taken an initiative to develop SME clusters in different areas of the country and banking sector is working to develop the clusters, he added.
At the programme, the entrepreneurs shared their experiences, problems and views related to SME loan with the bank officials.
Entrepreneur Nazma Arif of Nikhut Crafts said that she started her business with only Tk 50,000 and one sewing machine few years back. Then she took Tk 3 lakh as SME loan in 2000 and gradually the amount of loan increased to Tk 80 lakh in 2012 from BRAC Bank for expanding her business.
‘Now, I am the owner of a large factory and three showrooms and my accumulated wealth is now more than Tk 7 crore,’ she said.
Mohammad Manju, another entrepreneur, has become successful in manufacturing an instrument to roll yarn from wastage paper.
The entrepreneurs said that they had to pay around 26 per cent interest in getting SME loan while 3 per cent processing fee for collateral-free loan.
BRAC Bank managing director Syed Mahbubur Rahman said that they would try to reduce interest rate though it depended on some other factors including deposit rate and operational cost.
Award winner entrepreneurs are Akter Annar Begum, Gulshan Ara Parvin, Najma Arif, Parvin, Mohammad Manju, Shudipto Sarkar Pal, Alamgir Hossain, Amir Hossain, Ashanur Rahman, Nur Alam, Parkish Khan and Swadesh Chandra Datta.
Bangladesh bank general manager (SME department) Shukomol Singh Chowdhury, media personality Shykh Seraj, BRAC Bank director Shib Narayan Kairy, and deputy managing director Ishtiaq Mohiuddin, among others, spoke at the conference.
-With New Age input
