Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference
26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh, ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1
Access to Formal Sector Finance for Women-Led SMEs in
Bangladesh: The Refinancing Scheme of Bangladesh Bank
Ruba Rummana
Today women in Bangladesh hold high national posts and are engaged in businesses. But
historically they were not so involved in economic activities due to religious, cultural and
traditional barriers. Some social and economic barriers still remain which act as obstacles
for the development of women entrepreneurship Nevertheless women entrepreneurship is
a rapidly growing phenomenon in Bangladesh. As an advocate of the inclusive
development strategy, Bangladesh Bank is pursuing SME development through
undertaking pro-active Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) financing programmes of
which Refinancing is a center piece towards ensuring enhanced access of these
enterprises to institutional financing. As the guardian of the economy, Bangladesh Bank is
expected to play a key role to the development of women entrepreneurship. The
Refinancing Scheme of Bangladesh Bank provides a new window to the development of
women-entrepreneurs and opens new and favorable opportunities for them. This paper is
an attempt to address various issues related to this scheme, particularly with respect to the
development of women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh.
________________________________________________________
Ruba Rummana, Assistant Professor, Department of Arts and Sciences, Ahsanullah University of Science
and Technology, Email: rubachy@yahoo.com and ibchy@eee.uiu.ac.bd