Overall lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) grew nearly 14 per cent in the first nine months of the current calendar year following the strengthening of monitoring and supervision by the central bank.
Scheduled banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) all together disbursed Tk 819.54 billion in the January-September period of 2015. The amount was Tk 721.29 billion in the same period of the previous year, according to latest statistics.
The loans flowed to more than 130 SME sub-sectors such as light engineering, handicraft, flower, fish processing, handloom, rice-mill, jamdani, Rajshahi silk, khadi, biogas, and compost fertiliser.
"We're now working to cross the SME loan disbarment target by the end of this calendar year," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Monday.
The banks and NBFIs so far have achieved more than 78 per cent of their annual SME loan-disbursement targets for 2015, fixed at Tk 1045.86 billion, the BB data showed.
As part of the moves, the central bank has already asked at least eight banks which are yet to achieve the targets for taking effective measures to meet the target by the ear-end, the BB official explained.
He also said the disbursement of SME loans normally rises in the fourth quarters of each calendar year.
"We're giving emphasis on developing new entrepreneurs, particularly woman ones, through boosting disbursement of SME loans across the country," another BB official said in reply to a query.
During the January-September period, the banks and NBFIs disbursed SME loans to 6109 women entrepreneurs across the country in line with the BB advice, he added.
The central bank earlier asked all banks and NBFIs to provide minimum Tk 50,000 as loan from their each branch to at least one female entrepreneur by the end of this year.
Currently, 56 scheduled banks and 31 NBFIs are running their operations with more than 9,000 branches across the country.
Earlier on November 25, BB Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman said: "We're planning that the banks and NBFIs will have to provide the same amount of loan to at least two women entrepreneurs instead of the existing one from next year."
The BB governor also hoped that with the initiative, the small women entrepreneurs will turn into meddle ones gradually.
The central bank earlier introduced a three-tier monitoring system to ensure growth of the SME sector.
Under the monitoring system, the BB headquarters, its ten branch offices across the country and head offices of all commercial banks will review the implementation of SME credit programmes regularly.
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