The central bank yesterday asked the commercial banks to increase lending to agriculture, housing, and the small and medium enterprise (SME) sectors in order to accelerate economic growth.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) made the plea at a meeting, presided over by Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, with chief executives of the commercial banks.
The meeting was told that commercial banks had only lent 10 percent of the targeted amount to the agricultural sector in the first two months of this fiscal year, with Tk 804.14 crore in loans sanctioned against the targeted amount of Tk 8064.55 crore.
It is not possible to overcome the losses in agriculture caused by recent floods if the disbursement of agriculture loans is not increased, the meeting was told.
The central bank has already issued a circular for loan rescheduling through the easing of down payment conditions. The BB has also directed that a monitoring cell be formed so that the farmers would not face any harassment in receiving agricultural loans.
The governor suggested commercial banks use their excess liquidity in the productive sector so that the economy can grow faster. The central bank also expressed disappointment at the commercial banks' failure to sanction any loan to women entrepreneurs in the SME sector.
There are three refinancing schemes on SME in the central bank to reduce poverty and create employment through expanding SME activities. The schemes are the Small Enterprise Fund-ADB with a fund of Tk 210 crore allocated, Bangladesh Bank Fund with an amount of Tk 300 crore, and EGBMP with a fund of Tk 116 crore.
The meeting was told that the commercial banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) so far disbursed Tk 512.69 crore to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but any woman entrepreneur is yet to get an SME loan from the commercial banks.
It was also alleged that the banks and NBFIs did not cooperate with women entrepreneurs in the SME sector when they sought loans. Such attitudes from the banks are not expected, the meeting was told.
Under refinancing schemes, the interest rate is fixed at highest 10 percent for women entrepreneurs to increase their contribution in the SME sector. A woman entrepreneur can also get Tk 15 lakh SME loan without collateral.
Referring to the housing sector, the meeting was told that under the housing scheme there is a fund of Tk 300 crore with a top interest rate of 10 percent.
The banks and NBFIs, whose classified, or bad loans, are not more than 15 percent, will be able to use funds of the housing refinancing scheme of the central bank. Three financial institutions have already signed a deal with the BB to use the fund.