Tk 150cr Citi syndicated loan for farm sector
Citibank NA Bangladesh has arranged a syndicated loan amounting to Tk 150 crore for the agricultural sector, first-ever in the country.
As lead arranger, the bank provided the amount to BURO Bangladesh, a nongovernmental organisation, for a period of five years.
The loan will support BURO's expansion of microfinance activities directed towards the farm sector.
Agrani Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, Eastern Bank, Janata Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, Prime Bank, Pubali Bank, Sonali Bank, Southeast Bank, Standard Bank, The City Bank and United Commercial Bank are the participating banks.
Zakir Hossain, executive director of BURO, said the entire facility would be lent to the agricultural sector through an NGO-linking system, and for the participating banks, this will qualify as part of their agricultural sector lending.
“We are happy to provide BURO an important access to long-term local currency capital, which will help its programmes grow. This marks yet another milestone in our partnership with the country's microfinance sector and underlines Citi's commitment to supporting the cause of microfinance globally,” said Mark T Robinson, chief executive officer of Citi NA South Asia.
Robert Annibale, global director of Citi Microfinance, said the first ever-syndicated agricultural loan in Bangladesh would support lending to small farmers.
Established in 1990, BURO Bangladesh serves more than 7,00,000 customers, 99 percent of whom are women.
BURO has a presence in 51 districts in Bangladesh, through over 400 branches. As part of its expansion programme, BURO plans to open 215 new branches, to cover a total of 1.65 million customers by 2013.
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