Chanchana Chakma, convener of Bangladesh Indigenous Women Network, said bank authorities seek for land registration documents or guarantee from the shop owner before sanctioning a loan for business. As such, most of the indigenous women enterprises are nipped in the bud only due to the shortage of bank loans. Condition of the plain land ethnic people is worse than that of the hill tract communities. About SME loan he said all the bank have been asked to provide 10% of their total loans to the women; and the indigenous women are also entitled to avail this loan. “An ethnic woman can get maximum Tk20 lakh as bank loans if her husband guarantees the timely refund.”“They will not need to provide any document for these loans to the banks,” Subhankar added.

Source: Dhaka Tribune January 21, 2018 19:52 UTC