Six new social business projects get go-ahead

Six more social business projects were approved for investment at the 329th Social Business Design Lab, organised by Yunus Centre in Dhaka on Saturday.

About 150 participants from national and international organisations attended the event.

All of the businesses have been launched by families of Grameen Bank borrowers, Yunus Centre said in a statement.

The plans include Nishbetganj Shatoranji Hostoshilpo by Amina Begum who has a handmade rug business seeking equity funding to expand her business.

Mozaffor Classical & Banshi by Mofazzal Mondol who produces indigenous bamboo flutes. His craftsmanship for making the flutes impressed the audience. He has already exported flutes to the United Kingdom and Tunisia.

Champa Rani, owner of Shoikot Bop, makes products out of waste cloth materials to clean rusty steel. She wants to realise her dream of becoming self-reliant.

Morsheda Khatun and Eshrat Zahan Champa presented their businesses that are involved in tailoring and garments business while Afroza Kutir Shilpo by Afroza Begum produces handmade baskets which can be used to carry fruits and vegetables.

All business plans were presented and discussed in detail and faced review by a number of groups.

Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, who chaired the event, thanked the participants for the innovative social businesses and noted that it is exciting to see that so many ideas are now business reality.

Since the beginning of the lab in January 2013, over 7,500 projects have been presented under the initiative that seeks to foster entrepreneurship in the country.

Of them, 7,400 projects have been approved for equity funding ranging from Tk 1 lakh to Tk 5 lakh each.