Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank of Bangladesh has unveiled an agricultural and rural credit policy and programme with a disbursement target of BDT 175.50 billion for this fiscal, projecting around 7.01 per cent growth over that of the previous fiscal.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Fazle Kabir declared the policy formally at a meeting with chief executive officers and managing directors of all scheduled banks at the central bank headquarters in the capital on Sunday.
“The BB will intensify monitoring and supervision from this fiscal to ensure proper disbursement of the agriculture credits,” the new central bank chief said while speaking at the meeting.
He also said if any bank failed to achieve the target, that bank would have to deposit the funds with the central bank from the unachievable part of the target.
The BB will not provide any interest for such deposit, he added.
In the FY 16, 45 banks out of 55 achieved their targets while 10 failed, according to the BB officials.
ICB Islamic Bank Limited, a PCB, has been excluded from the list of agricultural and rural credit disbursement.
The agriculture credit target has been fixed at BDT 175.50 billion, which is lower by BDT 960 million from the disbursement amount of the FY 16.
“It’s a realistic target that will be achievable by the end of the FY 17,” SK Sur Chowdhury, deputy governor of the BB, told reporters after announcing the policy.
Of the total target, BDT 28.90 billion will be disbursed by six state-owned commercial banks during the FY 17 while two specialised development banks will hand out BDT 64 billion to the interested farmers.
Besides, 38 private commercial banks out of 39 will lend BDT 78.27 billion while nine foreign commercial banks will disburse BDT 4.33 billion.
Meanwhile, the disbursement of farm credits crossed the target in the last fiscal for persuasion of the bankers by the central bank.
All banks achieved nearly 108 per cent or BDT 176.46 billion of their annual agriculture loan disbursement target, fixed at BDT 164 billion for the FY 16, the BB data showed.
Anis A Khan, chairman of the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB), Executive Director of BB Shubhankar Saha and General Manager of Agricultural Credit Department of the central bank Provash Chandra Mallick also spoke on the occasion.
BBN/SSR/AD