The credit disbursement for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) increased by 21.60 per cent in the first nine months of 2017 compared to the corresponding period in the last year, according to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, reports BSS.
"The growth of SME loan disbursement witnessed upward trends as the central bank has strengthened further its monitoring and supervision over the SME loan disbursement activities of the banks and financial institutions (FIs)," a BB senior official told the news agency on Sunday.
All banks and FIs have already disbursed over Tk 1.23 trillion (Tk 1,23,046.13 crore) loan in January-September period in 2017 which was over Tk 218.53 billion (Tk 21,853.99 crore) up compared to the same period in 2016.
Banks and FIs have already disbursed 91.93 per cent of their SME loan target in the year while the disbursement rate was 89.15 per cent in the corresponding period in previous year.
BB had set over Tk 1.338 trillion (Tk 1,33,853.59 crore) loan disbursement target for 2017 which was over Tk 1.135 trillion (Tk 1,13,503.43 crore) in 2016.
Additional Managing Director of the Mutual Trust Bank (MTB) M Hashem Chowdhury said SMEs have already become the most powerful and sustainable pillars of Bangladesh economy, covering both non-traditional manufacturing and service sectors. "Bangladesh Bank is also working relentlessly towards the development of the sector to achieve higher GDP growth" he added.
According to the BB data, FIs have shown better performance than the commercial banks as the FIs disbursed over Tk 63.89 billion (Tk 6,389.64 crore) till September which was Tk 20.106 billion (Tk 2,010.68 crore) or 45.92 per cent up compared to the corresponding period in the previous year.
During January-September period, commercial banks disbursed over Tk 1.22 trillion (Tk 1,16,656.49 crore) which was 198.31 billion (Tk 19,831.51 crore) or 20.48 per cent up compared to the same period of the previous year.
Banks and FIs have disbursed Tk 295.57 billion (Tk 29,557.18 crore) loans in the manufacturing sector, Tk 157.70 billion (Tk 15,770.81 crore) in the service sector and Tk 777.18 billion (Tk 77,718.14 crore) in the trade sector.
More than 0.55 million (5,58,566) manufacturing, service and trade organisations received the loans till September 2017 .
Banks and FIs also provided Tk 19.68 billion (Tk 1,968.68 crore) loans in the cottage industries, Tk 160.05 billion (Tk 16,005.87 crore) loans in the micro industries, Tk 499.40 billion (Tk 49,940.71 crore) loans in the small industries and Tk 551.30 billion (Tk 55,130.88 crore) loans in the medium industries.
