SMESPD in Brief
SME & Special Programmes Department (SME&SPD) is one of the significant outcomes of Bangladesh Bank (BB)’s policy paradigm shift to add financial inclusion to its traditional goals of prudential regulation & financial stability. This department started its journey in December, 2009 towards the development of CMSMEs in Bangladesh by improving the existing environment in the banking sector through regulatory & policy interventions. SME & Special Programmes Department is playing a pivotal role to ensure country’s inclusive & sustainable economic growth through CMSMEs development with a special focus on financially excluded, unbanked people & women entrepreneurs.
BB identified Cottage, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (CMSMEs) as a top priority sector for rapid industrialization, employment generation, poverty reduction, gender equality & overall economic growth of Bangladesh. To develop the sector, this department provides refinance facilities to Banks & Financial Institutions at a relatively cheap rate against their financing to CMSMEs. Currently, Bangladesh Bank is providing refinance facilities to banks and financial institutions from Bangladesh Bank Fund, Revolving Fund Account of JICA assisted FSPDSME Fund & Urban Building Safety Project, Small Enterprise Refinance Scheme, Agro-based Product Processing Industries Fund, New Entrepreneurs Fund and Islamic Shariah Fund.
A target based lending to CMSMEs has been initiated since the inception of this department. This intervention for engendering SME finance has been declared as international best practice for SME financing by Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) in 2014. All banks and financial institutions have been disbursing credit to CMSMEs following their indicative target set on a calendar year (Jan-Dec) basis. SMESPD has been taking multifaceted initiatives for developing the Cottage, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (CMSMEs) including women entrepreneurship development all over the country.