Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The central bank of Bangladesh will ask the commercial banks for taking effective measures to achieve agriculture loans disbursement target by the end of this fiscal year, officials said.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) will give the instruction at review meetings with the banks, both public and private, scheduled to be held at the central bank on October 24-25 respectively.
“The central bank is now working to achieve the overall agriculture credit disbursement target by the end of this fiscal year,” a BB senior official said, adding that the central bank advised the banks to disburse farm loans with emphasis on productive sectors.
The BB will review the performances of eight nationalized commercial banks and financial institutions on October 24 next while senior officials of local and foreign private commercial banks will also sit with the BB officials on October 25.
The eight state-owned banks and financial institutions are: Sonali Bank Limited, Janata Bank Limited, Agrani Bank Limited, Rupali Bank Limited, Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB), Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB), Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) and Bangladesh Samabaya Bank Limited (BSBL).
“We’ll review the overall agriculture loans disbursement and recovery situation at the meetings,” the BB official said, adding that the central bank would want to known the activities of micro-finance institutions for disbursement of farm loans.
The banks, having not enough branches in the rural areas, are allowed to use non-governmental organizations (NGOs) linkage for disbursement of the farm credit.
On July 21 this year, the central bank announced an agriculture credit policy and program with a disbursement target of BDT 126.17 billion for FY11, projecting 9.6 percent growth over that of the previous fiscal.
BBN/SSR/SI-18Oct10-11:31 am (BST)
