Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor Fazle Kabir on Saturday called upon the country's commercial banks for strengthening corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to create skilled human resources.
He said the country, which recently became eligible to graduate from LDC (least developed country) status, needs to overcome too many social and economic challenges for successful transition in the next 6 years.
Suggesting banks and financial institutions (FIs) for coming out of the normal banking activities, he said income earnings or capital raise for development works will not be enough for achieving the goal.
"We've to spend more for social causes because programmes like scholarship will help build skilled human resources to cope with the challenges ahead," the central bank governor said.
The BB governor was speaking as chief guest at a student's scholarships distributing programme arranged by Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited (AIBL) at Officer's Club in the capital.
A total of 200 poor but meritorious students were awarded scholarship for their outstanding performances in the HSC (higher secondary certificate) examination-2018.
Mr. Kabir said the AIBL has started distributing agricultural loan through agent banking, which is timely and will help boost up the agri sector.
He said the central bank each year fixes specific rate for financing farmers but there are many private commercial banks, foreign commercial banks in particular, lend the fund to MFIs (microfinance institutions) and other financials to disburse in the rural areas.
"So, the cost of fund increases almost double in many cases hurting the beneficiaries," he said.
He also suggested the Shariah-based Islami bank to take care of the ADR (advance deposit ratio).
Sharing the journey of the bank since 1995, AIBL chairman Alhajj Abdus Samad Labu said the bank became one of the top PCBs in the country thanks to efficiency and due diligence.
"This is the first Islami bank in Bangladesh that is rated as B1 by credit rating agency Moody's," he added.
According to the AIBL statistics, total deposit of the bank stood at Tk 280 billion with investment portfolio of Tk 260 billion and remittance earning worth Tk 40 billion.
AIBL managing director Farman R Chowdhury also spoke at the event.
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