NCC Bank signs deals with central bank to finance CMSMEs

NCC Bank PLC has signed two participatory agreements with Bangladesh Bank under the 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 M Shamsul Arefin, managing director of NCC Bank PLC, signed the agreements at the BB headquarters in Motijheel, Dhaka recently, according to a press release.

Under the agreements, NCC Bank 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; Md Habibur Rahman, deputy managing director of NCC Bank PLC; and Sharif Mohammad Mahsin, senior vice-president and head of the SME division of NCC Bank PLC, along with other senior officials from both organisations, were also present at the event.