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Proposed People’s Bank got three more months to fulfil conditions
Bangladesh Bank is set to form a Tk 500 crore refinancing scheme to provide low-cost loans to budding entrepreneurs.
The guideline for the fund will be released soon, said a top official of the central bank familiar with the proceedings of the board meeting yesterday, where the fund got the go-ahead.
Lenders would be able to get the fund from the central bank at a 0.5 per cent interest rate and they will disburse the fund at a maximum of 4 per cent interest rate.
Besides, the lenders also will have to form a similar fund from its own fund, he added.
Anyone over the age of 21 will be able to get loans from the fund and he or she can borrow a maximum of Tk 1 crore for their new and innovative ventures. The highest tenure for loans from the fund would be five years.
Loans can be taken only once for each venture, said another BB official involved in the formulation of the fund.
The borrowers’ educational qualification, technical experience, personal, social and group guarantee can be taken as collateral.
Such an initiative of the central bank will play a vital role in increasing employment in the society, bankers said.
Small and medium entrepreneurs also welcomed the central bank initiative.
Also at the board meeting, which was presided over by BB Governor Fazle Kabir, the proposed People’s Bank got another three months to meet the central bank’s requirement for getting the final licence.
In February 2019, the central bank had issued letters of intent to three banks: Bengal Commercial Bank, People’s Bank and Citizen Bank.
Of them, Bengal Commercial Bank and Citizen Bank went on to get the final approval from the central bank but the People’s Bank is yet to get the BB permission.
MA Kashem, an AL leader in the US, is the chairman of the proposed lender.
(DT)
