RAJSHAHI, Feb 27, 2018 (BSS) – Speakers at a meeting here on Monday underscored the importance for boosting investment to Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector for strong economy.
Terming the promising SME sector as labour-intensive, they viewed that successful promotion of the sector could be the effective means of alleviating poverty, generating employment and thereby accelerating economic growth which is very important for reducing the existing gap between rural and urban areas.
The observation came at the 17th board meeting of SME Financing Company Limited, a subsidiary company of Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB, held at its Board Room.
With Nazrul Islam, Chairman of RAKUB and also chairman of the company governing body, in the chair, board members Sayeed Kutub, Prof Rustam Ali Ahmed, RAKUB Managing Director Kazi Alamgir, General Managers Muzammel Haque and Khandaker Golam Mostofa and member-secretary and company chief executive officer Fazlul Karim joined the meeting.
SME loan worth more than Taka 20.53 crore was disbursed among around 24,300 entrepreneurs in 40 upazilas of Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Natore, Naogaon, Pabna, Sirajgonj, Bogra, Joypurhat and Kurigram districts during the first seven months of the current 2017-18 fiscal year. The recovery rate is around 99 percent, the meeting sources said.
The loans are being disbursed with the main thrust of creating an intensive investment scope for the agro-based SMEs in the light of the government 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 program through intensifying motivational, awareness building and monitoring activities to make the program a success.