They, however, said that the loan disbursement to the women entrepreneurs had increased on year-on-year basis during the period, as the BB took a number of initiatives in this regard.
According to the latest BB data, the banks and NBFIs have disbursed SME credit to the tune of Tk 139,518.98 crore from January 2010 to June 2012.
Of the amount, Tk 5,097.72 crore was disbursed to the women entrepreneurs.
The percentage of disbursement to the women entrepreneurs of total SME credit was 3.65 per cent during the period, showed the BB data.
The BB had earlier asked the banks and NBFIs to disburse minimum 10 per cent loans to the women entrepreneurs of their total disbursed loans in SME sector in a year.
A BB official on Thursday told New Age that the central bank had always preferred to disburse loans to women entrepreneurs under the refinance scheme, but the banks and NBFIs were showing reluctance in this regard.
BB data showed that banks and NBFIs had disbursed Tk 2,416.17 crore loans under the SME refinance schemes in the two and a half years. Percentage of refinance to total SME financing during the same period was only 2 per cent.
Bangladesh women entrepreneurs not getting desired loans
Under refinance schemes, banks and NBFIs distributed Tk 381.43 crore to the women entrepreneurs in the period. The percentage of refinance to women entrepreneurs comparing to that of the total SME credit to women entrepreneurs during the same period stands at 7.48 per cent.
BB SME and special programmes department general manager Sukamal Sinha Choudhury told New Age that the loan disbursement to the women entrepreneurs had increased consecutively between January 2010 and June 2012.
He said the banks and NBFIs disbursed Tk 1,804.98 crore in SME loans to women entrepreneurs in the year 2010 whereas the total disbursed credit stood at Tk 53,543.93.
The percentage of disbursement to women entrepreneurs of the total SME credit was 3.37 per cent in 2010.
In 2011, Tk 2,048.45 crore were disbursed to the SME women entrepreneurs, which was 3.81 per cent of the amount Tk 53,719.44 crore — the total disbursed SME credit in the year, Sukamal said.
Banks and NBFIs in the first half of this year disbursed Tk 1,244.29 crore to the women entrepreneurs, which was 3.86 per cent of the total disbursed SME credit amounting to Tk 32,255.61 crore during the period of the year.
When asked why the loan disbursement to the women entrepreneurs in the period did not reach at 10 per cent, the BB GM said that the bankers were ignorant about the women entrepreneurs.
Besides, the women entrepreneurs usually fail to show the required collateral against the bank loan and they also cannot get support from the family and society in favour of their new businesses.
The BB GM admitted that they were receiving a number of plans to increase the loan disbursement to the women entrepreneurs.
The central bank will arrange more training programmes, workshops, seminars for the women entrepreneurs in the coming days.
Organising fair for Bangladesh SME women entrepreneurs would be increased and more initiatives would be taken in group-based financing and cluster-based financing, he added.