Call to support women-led enterprises in SME sector

As the SME sector is struggling to survive amid the Covid-19 crisis, speakers at a discussion called for supporting the enterprises, particularly the women-led ones, for the national interest. Women-led enterprises in Bangladesh have long faced policy hurdles in accessing finance from formal channels. Financial institutions are also reluctant to provide loans to women entrepreneurs, including the loans under government announced stimulus packages, they said.  Only 5.59 per cent of the government announced Tk 200 billion ($2.3 billion) stimulus package recipients for the small- to medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector are women, and they are mostly urban-based, added the experts.