Poor to get Tk 200cr soft loans without collateral
Staff Correspondent:
Bangladesh Bank on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 10 commercial banks to provide bank loans to Tk 10 account holders.
As per the deal, the central bank will provide Tk 110 crore to the 10 banks at 5 per cent interest. The banks will then lend the money to their clients of this category at an interest rate of below 10 per cent.
The banks are state-owned Sonali Bank, Janata Bank, Agrani Bank, Rupali Bank, Bangladesh Krishi Bank, private sector-owned Pubali Bank, NCC Bank, Standard Bank, Brac Bank and NRB Bank. Gradually, a total of 32 commercial banks will get the refinancing fund to provide the service.
The Bangladesh Bank signed the deal under its Tk 200 crore re-financing scheme as part of financial inclusion strategy under which mainly the low-income grassroots people including farmers, garment workers and day labourers, rickshaw-pullers, small shop owners, tea sellers, small vendors, will get the loan facility.
The banks will provide the low interest soft loan to these low-income account holders on bank-client relation basis to support their business ventures. At present, the total number of such Tk 10 category account holders is 14.044 million.
Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Atiur Rahman and other top officials of the banks were present at the deal signing ceremony at the central bank meeting room.
