Cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises (CMSMEs) constitute a crucially important segment of the Bangladesh economy in terms of employment, earnings and contribution to the country’s GDP. Majority of these enterprises belonged to the informal sector of the economy. At the same time, many of these enterprises were confronted with formidable difficulties in accessing the loans from commercial banks under the dedicated stimulus package earmarked for these units by the government. Because of the pandemic, the CMSMEs entrepreneurs were facing demand shortages and lower sales and, consequently, cash flow problems. To discuss the underlying factors for low take off of CMSMEs loans and to come up with possible solutions, Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh jointly with Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) organised a virtual dialogue on September 30, 2020 which was attended by representatives of key stakeholder groups.
Publication Period: February 2021