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ADB to give $200m for SMEs in rural Bangladesh run mostly by women
Asian Development Bank (ADB) will relase $200 million in loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in rural Bangladesh to help them gain access to medium- to long-term credit.
Published : 21 Jan 2016, 06:48 PM
Updated : 21 Jan 2016, 06:48 PM
The lender in a media statement on Thursday said the credit facility will target particular firms run by women.
It said women entrepreneurs are mostly engaged in subsistence trade and retail activities, and are typically less educated and have less access to SME finance than men.
“Rural firms and firms run by women struggle to get loans from banks. That means both they and the Bangladesh economy lose out,” it said quoting Peter Marro, Principal Financial Sector Specialist, in ADB’s South Asia Regional Department, as saying.
According to the ADB, there are about 7.2 million SMEs in Bangladesh. They account for 90 percent of all companies and employ 70-80 percent of the nonagricultural workforce in the country.
In 2014, the SMEs contributed 25 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP and 40 percent of the manufacturing output, the ADB said.
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