Bangladesh Bank (BB) is going to support urban people who lost their jobs due to coronavirus pandemic and bring them back to job.
The Central Bank would issue a notice in the next week, BB Executive Director and Spokesperson Md Sirajul Islam said.
He said, “A large section of the low-income townspeople who lost their jobs due to the Corona pandemic are now living a tough life in villages without any employment.”
The Central Bank has created a stimulus package of Tk 500 crore to support people who migrated back to their villages due to financial crisis , he added.
Another Central Bank official said many people became jobless due to the financial crisis caused by nearly two-year-long coronavirus pandemic.
Many people have jobs but their salaries have been reduced, he said adding that, even if some people run small business, they have lost their capital and failed to bear the expenses of the family.
“Most of them are now staying in the villages with their families. This has created a fear of adverse effects on the rural economy,” he mentioned.
To address this situation, the Central Bank has decided to roll out a stimulus package of Tk 500 crore.
The fund titled “Tk 500- crore -fund for people returning to the village due to the Covid-19 pandemic” to be disbursed through banks, financial institutions and NGOs. Lenders will borrow from this central bank fund at 0.5 percent interest and distribute it to customers at 6 percent interest, he added.
Borrowers who will avail themselves of Tk 1 lakh to Tk 2 lakh will be allowed to repay the loan by 18 months, which includes a grace period of three months, according to the BB information.
The repayment tenure will be two years, including a six-month grace period, if the amount of loan ranges between Tk 2 lakh and Tk 5 lakh.
Clients will not need to provide any collateral.
The tenure of the refinance scheme will end on October 30, 2024. The loan recovery, however, will continue afterwards.
The Central Bank has selected eight sectors to provide the fund.
The eligible sectors are local businesses with small capital, purchase of small vehicles in the transport sector, light engineering, fisheries and livestock, setting up service centres for information technology, cultivation of vegetables and fruits, purchase of agriculture equipment and building and repairing houses.
State-run banks will not need to ink any participation agreement with the central bank to take part in the refinance schemes, but this will not be applicable to private and foreign commercial lenders, which will have to sign the agreement to disburse the loans.
