Women entrepreneurs seek collateral-free loans
Women entrepreneurs yesterday urged banks and other non-banking financial institutions to provide collateral-free long-term credit for SMEs run by women entrepreneurs.
Some women entrepreneurs said they could do better if the banks and other financial institutions give long-term collateral-free loans with lower interest rates.
The women entrepreneurs were speaking at a workshop on 'How do Banks Assess Credit Worthiness? Pathfinders 2008: Women in SMEs' at Gulshan in Dhaka.
SouthAsia Enterprise Development Facility (SEDF) of International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Bangladesh Federation of Women Entrepreneurs (BFWE) jointly organised the workshop.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, President of BFWE Rokia A. Rahman urged the banks to give loans to the women entrepreneurs against their saleable goods.
“These workshops are opportunities for networking and knowledge sharing among women entrepreneurs in various business sectors in the country,” she said.
Rokia also expressed her gratitude to the women entrepreneurs of the light engineering sector who shared their success stories with the participants.
Deputy General Manager of the IFC-SEDF Deepak Adhikary said the purpose of organising such an initiative is to initiate dialogue and learning among female entrepreneurs regarding product development, market opportunities and access to finance.
Deputy Managing Director of AB Bank Niaz Habib conducted a session on credit worthiness at the workshop while President of Women Entrepreneurs Association Sabrina Islam also spoke.
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