No easy bank loans, say jobless expatriates, but bank refutes allegations

UNB :
Left jobless due to corona pandemic last year a helpless Nurul Azim Babu returned from Dubai to his home in Chattagram, his future dark and gloomy.
The money he had saved from his six-year job as a driver exhausted soon forcing a desperate Babu to look for a new job or start a small business in Bangladesh.
The job proved elusive and no business was coming his way as the father of three children had no capital.
At this point Babu received good news.
The government announced a Tk. 700 crore package of incentives for the Bangladeshi expatriates like him who had to return home after losing jobs abroad due to Covid-19.
As advised by a friend he went to the state-owned Prabashi Kallyan Bank and applied for a loan of Tk 3 lakh.
It did not take long for the helpless man to realize getting the loan was not going to be a cakewalk.
“The first thing the bank asked me to do is to prove that I have an at least one-year-old running business in Bangladesh.” “Since I had no such business and no one to help me in this regard I did not qualify for the loan.”
Haunted by his job loss and subsequent harassment at home a frustrated Babu wondered if the government offer has been “a kind of deception.”
This is not only Babu’s tale. A good number of an estimated five lakh Bangladeshi returnee expatriates have echoed his frustration in interviews with this UNB correspondent.
Consider the case of Sohag Hawlader, who returned from Lebanon after being fired from his work with his employer citing coronavirus woes.
He said, “If an ordinary expatriate like me goes for a loan from PKB, they ask to submit trade license and signature of a businessman, signature of another government official as guarantee.”
Sohag, who has his wife and a child continued: “They (PKB) are posting advertisement on Facebook and YouTube: it is very easy to get loan from the bank. There should have a limit to harassment.
“My request to all expatriates is not to take a loan from them as they are insulting us,” said an angry Shohag.
The PKB management strongly refutes the allegations.
Zahidul Haq, managing director of PKB told UNB that they are successfully disbursing their loan to the returnee migrants who wanted to start their new business or project in Bangladesh.
“The Bank is trying its best to help the migrants in financing their businesses,” he said. He countered that many expatriates have understood the package as one-time charity, not a loan.