Women entrepreneurs\\\' access to SME loan remains insignificant

Access of women entrepreneurs to credit facility under the small and medium enterprise (SME) has been showing an upward trend in recent years though their share in the total credit portfolio still remains very insignificant.
Total SME loan disbursement for women entrepreneurs increased by 50 per cent and the number of recipients doubled to 41,695 in 2013, according to available data of the Bangladesh Bank.
It, however, reveals that share of women entrepreneurs in the SME loan was 3.92 per cent which is only 0.73 percentage point higher than the previous calendar year of 2012.
It is still far below the central bank's 15 per cent target of SME loan disbursement among women entrepreneurs.
According to the data, banks and financial institutions disbursed Tk 853.32 billion among 744,228 SME entrepreneurs in 2013 calendar year, of which Tk 33.46 billion were disbursed among 41, 695 women entrepreneurs.
In 2012, the total number of women entrepreneurs who received SME loan of Tk 22.44 billion was 17,362.
Entrepreneurs and observers said the increase in the percentage do not reflect the real scenario of total demand for loan among women doing businesses.  
They also alleged that many SME loans for women were provided by banks and financial institutions in papers, as men showed them getting the loan.
A banker also admitted the fact saying that understanding about women, they keep their eyes closed to meet the central bank's target of SME loan disbursement among women entrepreneurs.
He said it is still difficult to get eligible women entrepreneurs to disburse the SME loan in time.
The SME and Special Programme Department data do not show gender specific information to understand the real situation of loan disbursement among women. It has also some targets of disbursement for new, small and medium enterprises in rural and urban areas. But gender focuses remains absent in all sectors.
SME general manager Md Masum Patwari said they have taken initiatives to collect detailed information and data on women entrepreneurs from banks and financial institutions from this year to change loan disbursement scenario.
He said following some pragmatic steps taken by the central bank during the last few years, disbursement of SME loan among women entrepreneurs have been showing positive trend and it will continue.
"We feel the need for taking time-based initiatives. For that reason, we will collect specific data on women entrepreneurs from banks and financial institutions from this year," he told the FE.
He also said the central bank will also get the future guideline for ensuring access of women entrepreneurs to finance from the largest ever fair to be held today (Thursday).
Since introducing SME refinancing scheme in 2010 , Bangladesh Bank introduced group based SME loans for women focusing on cottage, micro and small level businesses.
Besides, setting up dedicated women desk in banks, identifying 50 clusters have helped women get loans.
The SME head said women's access to finance has been increased after the central bank identified more than 50 clusters throughout the country to disburse group based loan.
Selima Ahmad, founder president of Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, termed all the initiatives positive but laid emphasis on establishing a watchdog to monitor overall process of loan disbursement among women entrepreneurs so that real entrepreneurs get loans
Monwara Hakim, first Vice President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) laid emphasis on disbursing loan among rural women entrepreneurs to help them shift from micro to small and medium enterprises.
Kazi Mahmood Karim, SME head of the Prime Bank, however, stressed on banks' liberal attitude towards women entrepreneurs as well as women's coming forward institutional forms in to get SME loans easily.