Al Amin :
NRB Commercial Bank Limited, a fourth generation’s rising bank, is working for the marginal people side-by-side traditional banking. The bank is finding necessary capital to entrepreneurs in handicrafts, cottage, micro and small industries. Md Mukhter Hossain, Managing Director and CEO of the bank, talked to The New Nation on Wednesday about the bank’s development activities to strengthen the rural economy.
Question: How much importance does the bank give in financing the SME sector?
Answer: NRB Commercial (NRBC) Bank is the dream bank of dreamy expatriate Bangladeshis. It was established to ensure effective participation of expatriates in the economy of Bangladesh. Maintaining the goal, we are trying to work with the marginal people and bring the small and micro industries scattered in different areas under our bank’s services. We are trying to build the entrepreneurs of the sector with all of our support including funding. If small industries can become self-sufficient in marginal areas, employment will increase tremendously. The economic development of the country will be faster as well. NRBC Bank is providing banking services giving priority on these issues.
Question: How much the bank has disbursed loans in the SME sector and how many entrepreneurs have been benefited?
Answer: The SME sector is being given priority in lending. We are working to finance new ventures in the SME sector. The bank disburses loans to 4, 966 097 entrepreneurs in the Cottage, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (CMSME) sectors till September this year. The amount of the disbursed loans is Tk 2900 crore, which is 39 per cent of the total loans of the bank. It will be increased in future.
Question: Banks in private sector don’t want to set up branches in villages. Under this situation, how the entrepreneurs of the rural area are getting loans?
Answer: New branches in both public and private sectors are being opened in compliance with the policy of Bangladesh Bank. According to the BB’s policy, the ratio of rural and urban branches is 1: 1. That means, if a branch is opened in a city, it has to be opened another in village. Out of 83 branches of our bank, 41 are in rural area. We have also a special branch for women. Besides, we have 396 sub-branches and most of them are located in the rural area. Loans for cottages, small and micro industries are being disbursed through the rural branches.
Question: What is your view on cluster based microfinance?
Answer: As I said earlier, we are providing services to the marginal people according to their needs and demands. We are financing the cluster industries that are area based and sector based. We have opened branches in Tangail and Sirajganj to support handicraft industries including sarees and lungis. In other areas, we are providing services by setting up sub-branches which are located very close to the industry. We are disbursing loans through NGOs to meet the needs of small entrepreneurs very keenly. Thus the way, our traditional small industries can be self-sufficient and new entrepreneurs will be created.
Question: SME sector are allegedly not getting loans from the stimulus. Is there any unwillingness?
Answer: Banks are doing well in implementing the stimulus. But it takes time to disburse loans to the SME sector. Because, the central bank’s policy had earlier said that loans should be given in the sub-sector of the manufacturing. But 80 per cent entrepreneurs of the SME sector are trade-based. That’s why the loan disbursement in this sector did not get pace as much as expected, even though the bank wanted. Recently, the central bank has brought changes in the policy and it will accelerate the disbursement. Our allocation was Tk 130 crore for the SME sector, of them, Tk 65 crore have already been disbursed.
