Certificate award ceremony

Banks 'have role in employment generation, financial inclusion'

FE Report | July 11, 2019 00:00:00

Professor Vincent Chang, Vice Chancellor of BRAC University, Selim RF Hussain, Managing Director & CEO of BRAC Bank, and other guests posing with the participants of an international entrepreneurial development training programme, organised by the BRAC Bank, at the certificate award ceremony in the city on Tuesday

Banks and non-bank financial institutions are in the business not only to maximise their profits but they also have a role to play in employment generation, financial inclusion and minimising gender gap in business, said a central bank official on Tuesday.

Speaking at a certificate distribution propgramme, Bangladesh Bank General Manager (SME and Special Programmes Department) Lila Rashid said the banking sector does not have a gender sensitive policy for the betterment of the country's women.

"We are still far away from our objective of lending to women. Currently, the rate of lending to women is 3.0 to 4.0 per cent in the MSME sector although the target was 15 per cent," she said.

The Brac Bank organised the certificate distribution and celebration programme to honour women entrepreneurs who successfully completed an entrepreneurial development training programme by American Babson College.

A group of resource persons from Babson College and the FMO, a Dutch financial investment firm conducted the training programme in the city.

A total of 35 women participated in the training.

The training is aimed at facilitating women entrepreneurs in developing and enriching entrepreneurial and managerial skills in order to help them expand and sustain their business.

Speaking at the programme, BRAC Bank Managing Director and CEO Selim RF Hussain said the programme is a hallmark for BRAC Bank in which women entrepreneurs coming from different parts of the country are trained to accelerate the success of their own ventures in order to promote the cause of economic empowerment.

Women entrepreneurs having two years' business experience with entrepreneurial spirit, enthusiasm and persistence are applied for the programme.

BRAC University Vice Chancellor Professor Vincent Chang, Professor Patricia G Greene from Babson College, among others, spoke at the celebration programme.

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