STAR BUSINESS DESK

Bank Asia PLC has signed two agreements with SME Foundation to provide small and medium enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs with easier access to financing on affordable terms.

ANM Mahfuz, additional managing director of Bank Asia PLC, and Anwar Hossain Chowdhury, managing director of SME Foundation, signed the agreements in Dhaka recently, according to a press release.

Under the SME Foundation’s refinance fund through the Credit Wholesaling Programme, entrepreneurs will be able to avail loans at an interest rate of 8 percent.

Under another programme supported by Japan International Cooperation Agency through Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund Limited, SME entrepreneurs will be able to access loans at an interest rate of 9 percent.

Khandakar Abdul Muktadir, minister for industries, commerce, and textiles and jute, attended the event as the chief guest. Md Obaidur Rahman, chairman of SME Foundation and secretary of the Ministry of Industries, presided over the programme.