The Inter-national Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, launched a training initiative for financial sector executives in Bangladesh to help them step up support for SMEs so they can expand operations and contribute to the country’s economic growth.

The programme, developed in collaboration with the Austrian Development Bank, Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank, is training bank executives in strategy, market segmentation, product design, customer management, credit-risk management, and information-management systems.

The SouthAsia Enterprise Development Facility, managed by IFC, in partnership with the UK government and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, is supporting this initiative, said an IFC press release on Monday.
Data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey shows that about 35 per cent of Bangladesh’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) identify access to finance as a major constraint to business.

Difficulty with payment services, deposit mobilisation, and investment financing are some of the impediments. IFC’s training programme helps address these problems by guiding bankers on how to serve the SMEs effectively.

“IFC is committed to developing the potential of small businesses in Bangladesh as they are the engine of economic growth,” said Rehan Rashid, IFC Senior Country Officer.

He added: “This programme aims to work with the financial sector in Bangladesh to expand its services into new markets and reach more small entrepreneurs.”

The training was designed by IFC’s Global Small and Medium Enterprises Banking Program to help banks in middle-income and developing countries target the sector opportunity and expand this line of business.

IFC has conducted similar trainings in East Asia and the Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa, where IFC has had a significant impact in bolstering small and medium enterprises.

News: The Daily Independent/Bangladesh/16th-Oct-12