SME Banking Revolutionizes Women Entrepreneurship: Bangladesh Perspectives

Abstract

Empowerment of women has now been taken as one of the significant tools for development in those countries that standing on take-off stage.Bangladesh is a developing country where men and women ratio is 104:100. It means almost 50% of the total populations are women. But the social, political and economic conditions of women are very vulnerable. Although they have to complete all the household works which is not recognized inthe national GNP. The financial assistances provided by the banks have played an important role in promoting their involvement in the entrepreneurial activities. Banks, in Bangladesh,have been providing SME loans to the women entrepreneurs to do business. Therefore, the study initiates to investigate that how SME loans, provided by banking sector of Bangladesh, responds to women entrepreneurship development. Besides, this study also attempts to find out all the barriers faced by the women entrepreneurs in case of SME loans provided by banks in Bangladesh. This study has been done on the basis of both primary and secondary data. It has been observed from the study that 54% of the entrepreneurs had annual return from investment implying that due to providing loan and other facilities to SME women entrepreneurs’ by banks, the social status of women in the family and in the society has increased significantly. However, the paper also focuses on some issues of concern and challenges of women entrepreneurship development through SME banking. Finally, this paper provides some strategic recommendations.