The SME Foundation has disbursed Tk300 crore of stimulus loans ahead of the government’s declared schedule time to offset the loss of Covid-19 pandemic.

The loan was disbursed among 3,106 CMSME entrepreneurs at the marginal level on easy terms and at low interest, said the Foundation on Sunday.

The stimulus loans have been given to cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises (CMSMEs) under the government's second phase incentive package to accelerate the country's economic recovery in the face of coronavirus to improve the living standards of marginalized people in rural areas.

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In the second phase, it announced an incentive package of Tk 1,500 crore, of which Tk 300 crore was allocated in favour of the SME Foundation. In the fiscal year 2020-21, the finance department released Tk 100 crore in favor of SME Foundation and in the fiscal year 2021-22, the finance department released Tk 200 crore.

Of this, the SME Foundation distributed Tk 200 crore, six months ahead of schedule for the current financial year. The SME Foundation has distributed the entire amount in just four and a half months in two phases.

Around 26 per cent of the loans disbursed to women entrepreneurs and remained 74 per cent loans disbursed to men entrepreneurs.

Among the loaned entrepreneurs, 1462 are from the trading sector, 1167 from the manufacturing sector and 477from the service sector. Around 50 per cent of entrepreneurs have received loans of less than Tk 5 lakh.

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The SME Foundation has signed loan disbursement agreements with 12 banks and financial institutions in the first phase and 19 banks and financial institutions in the second phase.

Banks and financial institutions are Brac Bank, Bank Asia, BASIC Bank, The City Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, Dhaka Bank, NRB Commercial Bank, Premier Bank, Social Islami Bank, One Bank, Prime Bank, Karmasangsthan Bank, United Commercial Bank, Eastern Bank, Southeast Bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank, Bengal Commercial Bank, IPDC Finance, IDLC Finance and Lankabangla Finance.

Entrepreneurs have received loans at 4 per cent interest under the stimulus package. In the first phase, the amount of loan at the entrepreneurs’ level ranged from a minimum of Tk 1 lakh to a maximum of Tk 75 lakh. However, in the second phase, a maximum loan limit was set at Tk 50 lakh to bring more entrepreneurs under the loan scheme.