“The country’s commercial banks except for Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) have less experience in providing agriculture loans,” said Zahid Hussain, former lead economist of the World Bank’s Dhaka office. As many as 43 banks have signed up with the central bank to disburse the agri-stimulus fund and most of them have disbursed 0.7 per cent to 7 per cent of their allotted sum. Contacted, One Bank Managing Director M. Fakhrul Alam said he is confident it would be able to complete its disbursement target within the central bank deadline of December 31. Disbursement by state-run banks from the package has been satisfactory but most private banks had disbursed a poor amount of loans from the stimulus package, said a high official of the central bank. “We always put pressure on the banks about their very poor disbursement performance,” he added.

Source: Dhaka Tribune November 24, 2020 18:11 UTC