BB, Alliance Finance to support refinancing for small businesses

Alliance Finance PLC, a joint venture finance company between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, has signed two participatory agreements with Bangladesh Bank under the BB’s Cluster Finance Refinance Scheme and the Financial Sector Fund for the development of cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises (CMSMEs), aimed at strengthening financing support for the sector across the country.

Nawshad Mustafa, director of the SME and Special Programmes Department of the Bangladesh Bank, and Shahanur Rashid, head of business at Alliance Finance PLC, signed the agreements at the BB headquarters in Motijheel, Dhaka recently, according to a press release.

Under the agreements, Alliance Finance will provide term loans and working capital support to entrepreneurs in various industrial clusters under the Bangladesh Bank’s Tk 3,000 crore Cluster Finance Refinance Scheme and the Tk 1,500 crore Financial Sector Fund for the development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Loans under both schemes will carry an interest rate of 7 percent.

Nurun Nahar, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, attended the signing ceremony.

Husne Ara Shikha, executive director of the central bank, and Sayful Islam, head of SME at Alliance Finance PLC, along with other senior officials from both organisations, were also present at the ceremony.