Home ›› 27 May 2022 ›› Corporate
Bangladesh Bank and BRAC Bank have signed an agreement on providing refinancing facilities to the cottage, micro and small enterprises (CMSEs) run by returnee migrant workers, unemployed youth, and rural entrepreneurs and women business owners.
Through signing the agreement, BRAC Bank became a participating financial institution under the ‘Supporting Post Covid-19 Small Scale Employment Creation Project’ funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB), said the bank in a statement on Thursday.
Bangladesh Bank Executive Director and Project Director of Supporting Post Covid-19 Small Scale Employment Creation Project Nurun Nahar and BRAC Bank Managing Director and CEO Selim RF Hussain signed the agreement at the central bank in Dhaka on Wednesday.
BB Deputy Governor Abu Farah Md Nasser, BB General Manager for SME & Special Programmes Department Jaker Hossain, ADB Principal Financial Sector Specialist Dongdong Zhang, and BRAC Bank Deputy Managing Director & Head of SME Banking Syed Abdul Momen attended the event.
Under the agreement, BRAC Bank and other participating banks and financial institutions will avail of refinancing facilities amounting to Tk1,290 crore from the Bangladesh Bank and provide subsidised interest credit to the businesses. An entrepreneur can avail of up to a Tk 50 lakh loan for five years.
Being the leading collateral-free CMSME financer in the country, BRAC Bank has always been committed to the CMSME sector, which is the lifeblood of the economy and vital to employment generation and invigorating the country’s growth engine.
The Bangladesh Bank earlier recognised BRAC Bank for its outstanding role in implementing the first phase of the Covid-19 CMSME Stimulus Package in FY 2020-2021.
Welcoming the refinancing facility, the BRAC Bank managing director said: “We appreciate Bangladesh Bank for making BRAC Bank an implementation partner of ADB-funded Supporting Post Covid-19 Small Scale Employment Creation Project.
“As a CMSME-focused bank, BRAC Bank is committed to ensuring easy access to finance for grassroots entrepreneurs. We have already redoubled our efforts to provide much-needed funds to the CMSME entrepreneurs. We believe this refinancing facility will help the small-scale entrepreneurs recover from the pandemic,” he said.
