EEF experiences drought of competent ICT entrepreneurs

Substantial part of the EEF meant for supporting information and communication technology (ICT) projects has remained idle due to the lack of response from adequate number of qualified entrepreneurs, officials said.
Besides, most of the applicants could not meet their part of equity requirement--- 51 per cent.
The Equity and Entrepreneurship Fund (EEF), managed by Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB), provides a project with a maximum of 49 per cent of the required investment.
As a result, the fund earmarked for ICT projects remains unutilised, said an official.
He said many of the entrepreneurs had submitted applications having full of mistakes or incomplete information as noticed by the project inspectors.
The situation in the case of agro-processing projects is altogether different. Applications for such projects are flooding the relevant section of the ICB.
"The fund for agro-processing and its different sub-sectors is insufficient," a high official of the ICB told the FE, preferring anonymity.
He said there is no dearth of entrepreneurs for the agro-based projects, but the fund for the ICT projects could not be disbursed due to lack of qualified and competent entrepreneurs.
Besides, he added, some applicants for agro-based projects did not receive funds even after approval of their projects for non-availability of fund.
Currently, over Tk 21.04 billion is urgently needed for providing funds to the sanctioned agro-based projects, he informed.
The ICT sector still has unused funds worth more than Tk 4.06 billion. On the other hand, agro-processing sector has only Tk 2.32 billion against the demand  for funds over Tk 20 billion until January 31, 2017, according to the latest data from Bangladesh Bank (BB).
The central bank first established the fund with allocations from the national budget in the fiscal year 2000-01 to develop entrepreneurship and create employment opportunities in areas of ICT and agro-based industries, excluding conventional subsectors such as rice mills, flour mills, fishing trawlers, cold storage etc,.
Initially, the bank itself managed the fund before handing over the same to the ICB in June 2009. The ICB Capital Management Ltd acts as the project appraisal arm of the EEF.
The government has allocated Tk 37.0 billion between fiscal year 2000-01 and 2016-17 for the EEF. Of the amount, some Tk 20.25 billion has been released until January 2017.
The ICB sanctioned over Tk 33.85 billion for 1,890 agro-projects until January last. About Tk 12.80 billion was released during the same period, according to the latest data.
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