Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday has instructed officials to keep 25% of the Tk3,000 crore refinancing fund allocated for women.
This is meant for women from two segments, microcredit and microenterprise credit, according to a press release issued by the central bank's Financial Inclusion Department on the day.
The refinancing fund is aimed at salvaging covid-hit low income groups and small businesses. Affected farmers and marginalized traders would also be eligible for the low-cost credit.
With a grace period of three-months, interest rate for the borrowers under the scheme has been set at 9%, while the NGOs get at 3.5% rate from the scheduled banks.
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The loans could not be disbursed through banks or non-bank financial institutions, said an official of the central bank. He also mentioned that the interest rate for borrowers was much lower than the interest rate the microcredit entities or NGOs typically charge on the rural borrowers, and micro businesses.
As per the guidelines, the central bank disburses from the fund to scheduled banks at a rate of 1% interest.
For an individual, the borrowing limit from NGOs has been set at Tk75,000 and the limit for a group of at least 5 individuals at Tk3 lakh.
NGOs’ lending limit to a single small entrepreneur is Tk10 lakh while the limit is Tk30 lakh for joint projects of a group of at least 5 members. The borrowing capacity would increase proportionately with the increase of number of members in any group.
Earlier, the BB launched a Tk5,000 crore scheme for agriculture.