| Abstract | The development of Bangladesh is not possible without the engagement of women in economic
activities because almost 50% of the population is women. Therefore, the woman empowerment
comes from the involvement in various entrepreneurial activities mostly in economic fields. The
main objective of this study is to explore the role of Bangladesh Bank’s (BB) Small and Medium
Enterprise (SME) credit policies in promoting women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. Until now
women entrepreneurs are in less favorable position comparing to men for getting not only SME
credit but also other credits. To encourage women entrepreneurs Banks and Financial Institutions
have been instructed by central bank to provide loan facility up to 2.50 million against personal
guarantee as the only collateral in case of small and women entrepreneurs. Bangladesh Bank (BB)
also instructed that 15% of the refinancing scheme for SME sectors has been allotted for only
women entrepreneurs. If any bank fails to provide at least 10% of total SME loans to women
entrepreneurs, refinance request of that bank is not considered. Though Bangladesh Bank gives
more emphasis on SME credit facilities preferably to women, but till now women entrepreneurs are
not getting SME credit facilities satisfactorily.
Key words: Woman entrepreneurship, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME), Economic
Development, Banks and Financial Institutions, Refinance Scheme.
The issue covered by this study are socio-demographic profile of women entrepreneur, types of
women owned entrepreneur, regulatory procedures, financial literacy of women, the need of
training, women empowerment and human resources development. The study also focuses on the
importance of SME businesses to promote women entrepreneurship development. It also
concentrates on the importance of women entrepreneurship development for social stability as well
as the economic development of Bangladesh. This study also covers some suggestions regarding
policy issues and their possible implementations for women entrepreneurship development so that
they can contribute to the economic development of Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, women financial activities are not properly as these are mostly informal jobs
compared to men. In addition to this, low remuneration, higher working hours, limited access to
resources makes women helpless. The social and religious barriers for women in Bangladesh
restrict them to join in economic activities outside their home. Moreover, working environment in
not in favor of women and also employment opportunities are limited though the scenario is
changing day by day. For which women employment status in Bangladesh is lower. On the other
hand, poor infrastructure, higher inflation rate, higher unemployment rate, political instability, is
the major obstacles for the progress of women in Bangladesh. For the socio economic development
of the country the earning capacity of women can be helpful.
Empowerment of women has been considered as one of the noteworthy issues for economic
development. Almost fifty percent of the total people of Bangladesh are women. Women
engagement in different entrepreneurial activities has been greatly appreciated. For the socio
economic development of Bangladesh women could play an important role through their
participation in economic activities. Women participation in entrepreneurial activities has been
increased as they are getting financial assistance from different bank of Bangladesh. Women
entrepreneurs are getting loan named as SME loan for operating their different businesses like
boutique, embroidery, parlor, dairy farm etc. The loans that women are getting from different
financial institutions facilitate them to earn income, to create employment opportunity with the
expansion of their business. In addition to this what they earn from the operation of their business
can spend to meet up family expenditure, to educate their children and to repay the loan. Different
financial institutions opined that women entrepreneurs are very conscious to repay their loan in right time and a very insignificant portion of women entrepreneurs are involved in fund diversion.
However, women entrepreneurs face different types of problems while they are operating
businesses in Bangladesh for example, lack of education, lack of collateral to get loan from
financial institutions, arrangement of required documents to get loan from banks, lack of
experience, lack of availability of market information etc. In addition to these women entrepreneurs
also face some other problems like inadequate training facility on entrepreneurial development,
social and religious barriers etc. I have got necessary support from my different colleagues of
Bangladesh Bank for getting information and would like to covey thanks to everyone for their
contribution to make this study successful. I hope the findings of this study would help the policy
makers to make a more effective policy for women entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh.
The evaluation of this research based on two modules namely theoretical and empirical. The
theoretical module based on previous as well as current studies and empirical module based on
secondary data.
The main purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of central bank’s (BB) SME credit
policy for promoting women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. |