Loan disbursement to Small and Medium Enterprises rose over 15% in first nine months of the current year as banks focused the sector to achieve expected credit growth set in monetary policy by Bangladesh Bank.
Banks and non-bank financial institutions disbursed a loan of Tk72,062 crore between January and September this year which was 81% of a total annual target of Tk89,030 crore, according to the central bank data released yesterday.
The loan of Tk62,472 crore was disbursed in the same period last year against the target of Tk 74,186 crore.
Bangladesh Bank has taken several steps to encourage banks and non-bank financial institutions for financing the SME sector.
As part of its effort, the central bank awarded the best SME promoter on October through arranging “SME Banking Award and SME Financing Fair 2014”.
It also held a seminar in November titled “SME development: role of an effective SME association” as part of its drive for developing SMEs in the country.
Banks are now focusing the SME sector as they are burdened with surplus money amid lack of loan demand from industrial sector, said a senior executive of a private bank.
He said banks are now trying to come out of traditional banking and concentrating on the SMEs to achieve credit growth.
According to the central bank data, a major share of total disbursed SME loan goes to business. In last nine months, 64% of total SME loan went to business sector, 28% to industrial sector and 8% to service sector.
Loan disbursement to women entrepreneurs increased by 13% to Tk2,651 crore between July and September quarter compared to the same period last year.
Of the total disbursed SME loan in the last quarter, Tk6203 crore went to rural area and Tk18,750 crore to urban area, according to the central bank data.
The number of new entrepreneurs increased by 27% to 61,210 in the first nine months compared to the same period last year.
