BB forms Tk 500cr fund to help new entrepreneurs start business

The Bangladesh Bank has formed a Tk 500 crore fund in order to help new entrepreneurs aged between 21 and 45 years start businesses.

The fund has been constituted in the form of a refinance scheme, meaning banks will firstly disburse loans to clients and the banking regulator will later reimburse the fund to banks.

The Bangladesh Bank issued a notice on Tuesday to this end.

New entrepreneurs will be allowed to manage funds from the refinance scheme at a maximum interest rate of 4 per cent and banks will get funds at 0.5 per cent interest from the central bank.

The maximum repayment tenure of the fund is five years. A client will get a maximum of Tk 1 crore from the fund including one year grace period.

In addition, the banking regulator also asked banks to form a separate startup fund from their own money.

Each bank will have to keep 1 per cent money from their operating profit from this year. They will have to allocate the fund mentioned by the central bank for the next five years.

At least 10 per cent of the disbursed loan under the startup fund will have to be given out to female entrepreneurs.