The SME Financing Company Limited has disbursed Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) loan worth Tk 691.1 million (Tk 69.11 crore) aimed at promoting the sector in different potential areas of Rajshahi region during the last 16 months till October.
The company also recovered loan of Tk 639.1 million (Tk 63.91 crore) attaining profit of Tk 16.9 million (Tk 1.68 crore) during the same period. It was revealed in the 25th meeting of the governing council of the company held at the headquarters of Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) in Rajshahi city on Wednesday, reports BSS.
The SME Financing Company Ltd is a subsidiary company of the RAKUB.
Chairman of the council and the RAKUB Nazrul Islam Chaired the meeting. RAKUB Managing Director Sajedur Rahman Khan and council members Prof Rustam Ali Ahmed, Sayed Kutub, Towhida Khatun, Engineer Mofizul Haque and Chief Executive Officer of the company Foysul Islam were also present, among others, and spoke.
The meeting was told that the SME loan was disbursed among 5,984 entrepreneurs and recovered from 4,894 entrepreneurs in 43 upazilas of Rajshahi, Sirajganj, Naogaon, Chapainawabganj, Natore, Pabna, Bogura, Joypurhat and Kurigram districts.
Main objectives of the loans are of creating an intensive investment scope for the agro-based SMEs in the light of the government's industrial policy and for supplementing the government's efforts to attain food security and economic emancipation.
Various business fields especially software, agro-processing and its business, agriculture, plantation, fisheries, poultry, tissue culture, leather goods, health service and diagnostic centres and education services have been selected for investment as small and medium enterprise loans.
Nazrul Islam asked the company officials to expedite the SME credit programme through intensifying motivational, awareness building and monitoring activities so that the target group of people can derive its total benefits.
Terming the promising SME sector as labour-intensive he viewed that successful promotion of the sector could be an effective means of alleviating poverty, generating employment side by side with accelerating economic growth.
SME promotion is very important for reducing the existing gap between rural and urban areas, he added.
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