Call to ease access of women to collateral-free credit

Businesses and government officials have urged the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to take necessary measures to implement the collateral-free bank loan facility meant for women entrepreneurs.
The plea came at the 4th SME Development Working Committee (SMEDWC) meeting of Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) at the Ministry of Industries (MoI) in the city recently, according to a statement.
Presided over by industries secretary Md. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, the meeting was addressed, among others, by BUILD chairman Asif Ibrahim.
CEO of BUILD Ferdaus Ara Begum presented three papers titled "Simplification of Financing Policies for Women Entrepreneurs", "Simplification of Trade Mark Registration Policy for SMEs in Bangladesh" and "Policy Simplification for Manufacturing of Boilers in Bangladesh" at the meeting.
She put forward a number of recommendations including the need for policy simplification for SME development.
Mr Bhuiyan urged the central bank to issue further directive to properly execute the Tk 2.5 million (25 lakh) collateral free loan for women entrepreneurs, said the press release of BUILD, a public private dialogue platform.
The industries secretary also agreed with a suitable definition of women entrepreneurship for mentioning in the coming industrial policy.
Mr Bhuiyan requested BUILD to coordinate with the government's relevant bodies including MoI for further validation of the recommendations made in the papers before sending those to the higher authorities.
An official of BUILD claimed that some banks showed reluctance to disburse collateral-free loan to the women entrepreneurs.
A number of women entrepreneurs, associations, representatives of the government bodies and BB attended the meeting, and expressed their views on the need for coordination among others and simplifying regulatory framework for the SME development.
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