UK Aid will provide a grant worth above Tk 13.73 million to the country's premier bourse for developing its trading platform recently introduced to accelerate the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The fund will be provided under a programme namely Business Finance for the poor in Bangladesh (BFP-B).
The BFP-B, funded by the British government, is a £25 million UK Aid facility to create economic opportunities for small business by changing the behaviour of market actors in the financial sector.
The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) will facilitate the listing of 50 companies with the SME platform by its own fund along with grant to be provided by the UK Aid.
The DSE's another objective is to achieve the target of the market capitalisation of Tk 3.0 billion for 2019 and Tk 5.0 billion for 2020 on the SME platform.
To accelerate the growth and development of the SMEs, the DSE earlier prepared a proposal namely 'Ease of Access to Equity Financing for SMEs'. The project cost was set at Tk 27.46 million.
Considering total cost of proposal, the premier bourse has been searching aids/grants from foreign and local funs who work for the interest of SMEs.
Later, the DSE participated in a competition to get funds/grants conducted by Business Finance for the Poor in Bangladesh (BFP-B).
Subsequently, the DSE's proposal has been approved by the BFP-B Challenge Fund Investment Committee for matching grant of maximum 50 per cent of the project cost.
The consortium comprising Nathan Associates London Oxford Policy Management is the management agency for the BFP-B programme.
The fund of the DSE and UK Aid will be used to bear the fee of issue managers and auditors partially.
"Some promotional activities will also be conduced with this fund. The companies which will come first will be benefited," a senior DSE official said.
Meanwhile, nine small companies have signed agreements with the issue managers as part of their initiative to be listed with the SME platform, the DSE official said.
On November 20 last, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) approved Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (Qualified Investor Offer by Small Capital Companies) Rules, 2018.
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