RAKUB disburses Tk 91.21-cr SME loan in Rajshahi

SME Financing Company Limited, a subsidiary company of Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB), has disbursed Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) loans worth Tk 91.21 crore.

The loans were disbursed among 7,519 SME entrepreneurs' aims at promoting the sector in different potential areas of Rajshahi region during the current 2022-23 fiscal year.

It has also disbursed loans worth around Tk 15.15 crore among 1,517 women entrepreneurs for flourishing the sector of women entrepreneurship together with improving the living and livelihood conditions of the women.

The company recovered loans of Tk 91.99 crore, including classified loans of Tk 4.62 crore, from 6,957 borrowers during the same period. It has also attained a net profit of Tk 3.92 crore during the last financial year.

Around Tk 120.19 crore remained outstanding among 10,346 borrowers.

Meanwhile, the company has set a target of disbursing loans of Tk 105 crore together with recovering Tk 97 crore during the current 2023-2024 fiscal year.

It has disbursed loans worth around Tk 45.18 crore among 3,606 entrepreneurs and recovered Tk 49.73 crore from 3,677 borrowers during the first six months of the current fiscal.

These were revealed in the half-yearly performance review meeting 2023 of the field officers of the company held at its office conference hall in Rajshahi on Wednesday.

RAKUB Managing Director Niranjan Chandra Debnath addressed the meeting as chief guest, while Chief Executive Officer of the company Abdullah Salah Uddin Gazi was in the chair.

Company Directors Prof Rustam Ali Ahmed, Abdur Rahim and Maksuda Nasrin also spoke.

Niranjan Chandra Debnath asked the company officials to expedite the SME credit programme through intensifying motivational, awareness building and monitoring activities so that the target group of people can derive its total benefits.

Terming the promising SME sector as labour-intensive he viewed that successful promotion of the sector could be the effective means of alleviating poverty, generating employment side by side with accelerating economic growth.

SME promotion is very important for reducing the existing gap between rural and urban areas besides recouping the losses caused by the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, he added.

The meeting was told that the SME loan was disbursed among the entrepreneurs in 43 upazilas of Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Natore, Naogaon, Pabna, Sirajganj, Bogura, Joypurhat and Kurigram districts.

The main objectives of the loans are to create an intensive investment scope for the agro-based SMEs in light of the government's industrial policy and to supplement 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 diagnostic centres and education services have been selected for investment as small and medium enterprise loans.

/KN/