Bangladesh is an agro based country. Till now 85% of our population depends on agriculture for their livelihood, either directly or indirectly. At the same time agriculture contributes the lion share of GDP. So we can’t under-value it any way. Naturally after the liberation of the country, the Government of Bangladesh decided to establish a bank that would nourish and develop agriculture. As a result Bangladesh Krishi Bank came into reality following the Presidential order no. 27, 1973. Krishi is the Bengali word for agriculture.

From the very scratch it was intended to develop BKB as a specialized bank for developing the agriculture and all other economic activities of rural Bangladesh. So further to pure agriculture it had to blanket Fisheries, Poultry, Livestock, Cottage industries and a lot more. Authorized capital of the bank was Tk.15000 million and paid up capital Tk.9000 million. The paid up capital was solely arranged by GOB.

In addition to providing credit service for agriculture and allied sectors, BKB offers all types of commercial banking products for clients. It has created a wide spread network through 972 branches all over Bangladesh (except Rajshahi & Rangpur Divs.). Besides, it has 15 authorized branches for dealing in foreign currencies.

Major Products and Services

Although the central attention of BKB is Agriculture, it doesn’t abandon other fields of economy at all. All the businesses of the bank may be defined as follow:

• Corporate Financing
• Credit Program
• Deposit Scheme
• International Banking
• Loan Services of BKB
• Poverty Alleviation
• Microcredit Program
• Corporate Financing

BKB initiated to finance big entrepreneurs from 2/3 years back. The corporate bodies already received financial assistance from the bank are Pran Group, Squire Group, Partex Group, Padma Group and some more renowned groups of companies.

Credit Programs

Credit program may be called the prime function of the bank. This program includes the following heads of schemes for agriculture and rural economics.

• Crop
• Fisheries
• Livestock
• Farm & Irrigation equipment
• Agro based Industrial projects
• SME
• Micro credit

60% of total loan allocation of Bangladesh Krishi Bank is reserved for crop alone. This program attends all the seasonal crops and target people are land owners, share cultivators and marginal farmers. Rate of interest is very much within reach of these people, only around 8%.

The bank disburses loans for fish culture and fish hatcheries. Cultivators of sweet water fish and shrimps may have the loans. Hatcheries for fish and shrimp are also considered for Bangladesh Krishi Bank loan. You may approach a BKB branch for your needs.

Under Livestock head BKB provides loans for Bullocks, Milch cow, Goatery, and Beef Fattening job. Aim of the projects is creation of self employment. In beef fattening program one person gets Tk. 25,000 for purchasing five calves. The calves are to be nourished and brought up in scientific way to make them sellable, healthy cows. This is a collateral free, supervised loan.

Bangladesh Krishi Bank presents loans for mechanizing cultivation and irrigation. People are interested now to switchover from traditional machinery and system to modern ones. So this is a timely approach. If you are eager to apply modern techniques in your firming, then visit a BKB branch. Well, BKB also patronize manufacture and marketing of farm equipment. Besides the bank offers credit for poultry and dairy farms and for export oriented food and fish processing plants.

SME plays a vital role in our economy. BKB logically imposes sufficient emphasis on it. Major Fields of the bank’s interest are:

• Electrical and electronics
• Software
• Light engineering
• Agro based all fields
• Leather and leather goods
• Garments
• Plastic and synthetics
• Healthcare
• Education
• Pharmaceuticals
• Fashion goods

The credit range in this sector is from Tk. 2.0 lac to Tk. 500.0 lac. The interest rates are quite logical and viable. So you should appear before BKB with your deserving requirement.

Deposit schemes

As a commercial bank BKB offers some well designed deposit schemes for the customers. These are Special notice deposit, Fixed deposit, Time deposit, Educational savings etc. Under time deposit there are some sub heads like DPS, SPS, Teachers saving, Hajj deposit and Krishan- Krishani deposit etc. All these schemes have lucrative interest rates except Hajj deposit.

International Banking

Bangladesh Krishi Bank renders all sorts of banking services in connection with Export, Import, and Remittance. For the purpose it maintains a wide spread connectivity with 200 correspondent banks and operates a good number of Nostro accounts at potential places around the globe.

Poverty alleviation

Bangladesh Krishi Bank has taken up Poverty Alleviation as one of its fundamental jobs. It extends micro credit services for the people below poverty level. Some of these services are arranged by BKB alone and some are joint efforts. Local and international agencies collaborate in several such projects. The international agencies like United Nations, Asian Development Bank, and SAARC are working with BKB in the projects.

It is now possible to express that BKB is performing its duties efficiently in developing agriculture of the country and at the same time helping the down trodden millions to come up above the poverty level through sustainable growth.