SME Foundation wants to disburse Tk1,000cr loan fund announced in budget

The SME Foundation has urged the government to route the announced Tk1,000 crore loan fund through it to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including women and grassroots entrepreneurs.

In a press release issued today, the foundation said that while presenting the 2025–26 budget, the finance adviser announced the fund to disburse loans to 10,000 CMSMEs (cottage, micro, small, and medium enterprises). The foundation believes this fund could be most effectively distributed through its own lending mechanisms.

The press release also mentioned that the budget outlines several important initiatives that align with the SME Foundation's existing work plan. 

These include creating 15,000 new entrepreneurs over the next three years, providing skills and technical training to 25,000 entrepreneurs, establishing SME display and sales centres in divisional cities, organising regional SME product fairs in district towns, and creating a central database for CMSME entrepreneurs.

The SME Foundation expressed hope that specific budget allocations would be made to implement these proposed programmes. It also recommended that the budget include a dedicated allocation for the implementation of the SME Policy 2025.

The Foundation also noted that it had successfully disbursed Tk300 crore — allocated by the government during the pandemic for affected SME entrepreneurs — within the stipulated timeframe and conditions, through banks and financial institutions. At present, the third phase of loan disbursement is ongoing from the fund created with that money.

The SME Foundation has expressed its gratitude for the inclusion in the budget speech of various initiatives to promote the SME sector under its ongoing credit wholesaling programme. These include low-interest loans, nationwide SME cluster mapping updates and demand assessments, services through incubation centres, and the organisation of SME product fairs.

The Foundation noted that the FY26 budget marks significant progress in the development of the CMSME sector. It thanked the interim government for accepting 41 out of the 140 recommendations submitted by the Foundation to the National Board of Revenue and other relevant agencies.

With the aim of developing the SME sector through economic, social, and environmental sustainability, the SME Foundation is implementing various programmes in line with the government's National Industrial Policy 2022, SME Policy 2019, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.

Since its establishment in 2007 under the Ministry of Industries, the SME Foundation has supported nearly 2 million small and medium entrepreneurs, 60% of whom are women.

According to the 2013 Economic Census by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), there are more than 7.8 million CMSMEs in the country, accounting for over 99% of all industrial establishments. The SME sector also generates around 85% of industrial employment, engaging more than 25 million people.