“BB Governor urges more loans to SMEs, women, agriculture”
Barishal Correspondent :
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur said that Bangladesh Bank would increase its supervision over banks in three sectors, including women entrepreneurs.
A procedure is being prepared to further increase the credit flow to SMEs, women entrepreneurs and the agriculture sector among the three sectors. The aim is to increase the amount of loans in these three sectors.
The BB governor said this while answering various questions from the participants at a meeting organized by Bangladesh Bank Barishal Branch on Thursday afternoon at a hotel to gather opinions and suggestions with people, institutions and other stakeholders of the Barishal region to formulate the monetary policy for the second half of the fiscal year 2025-26.
Among others at the meeting were Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Dr. Habibur Rahman, Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank Barishal Branch Imtiaz Ahmed Masum, Deputy Director of Monetary Policy Department of Bangladesh Bank Head Office Mahmud Salauddin Naser and other senior officials, were present in the programme.
The BB Governor said, we have 35 thousand crore taka for the SME sector. Which will be given at very low interest.
Despite providing various facilities, we are not able to give this 35 thousand crore taka.
Recently, the policy has been revised for this. We hope that we will see some improvement in this. We will be stricter with the banks in this regard.
Addressing the banks, he said, loans must be increased in the SME, entrepreneurial and agricultural sectors in the banks.
It must be increased on a large scale. 35 thousand crore taka has to be used and these cannot be left behind.
The BB Governor said, our banking sector still looks at the corporate-minded bigwigs. We have to come out of this mentality.
He also said, the cost of printing currency in the country is twenty thousand crore taka every year. Therefore, he said that cashless transactions are being encouraged to reduce waste.
If cashless transactions increase, the problem of torn notes will be eliminated. If QR codes are made mandatory for new trade licenses, cashless transactions will increase, he said.