Although the growing number of women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh have mostly kept good payment records over the past decade, their share of the total loans disbursed by banks and other financial institutions still remains low, according to experts.
“There has been impressive growth in the number of female entrepreneurs, but their share in total loan distribution was just 3.54 per cent in the last fiscal year,” said M Abu Eusuf, a professor of development studies at the University of Dhaka.
With this, the share of loan disbursements to women entrepreneurs has been confined to a modest 4 per cent for the past decade, he added.
Eusuf made these remarks at a seminar, styled “National and International Networks for Women Entrepreneurs: Potential Strategies for Addressing the Crisis”, at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center in Dhaka yesterday.
The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Foundation under the industries ministry organised the event as a part of the 10-day SME Fair-2022 at the same venue. Regarding the progress of women entrepreneurship in the country, Eusuf termed it as sluggish.
“The way we are moving now, it [women entrepreneurship] cannot go too far in the future,” he said.
Eusuf went on to say that relevant authorities will have to extend support by promoting backward and forward support to women entrepreneurs on various issues, including issuance of trade licences, financial…
