IDLC Finance Wins Silver Award as “Best Women Friendly SME Bank of Bangladesh” by Global SME Finance Forum
IDLC has been awarded the silver award as ‘Best Women Friendly SME Bank of Bangladesh’ by Global SME Finance Forum held at Nederland, Amsterdam. IDLC Finance’s Deputy Managing Director and Head of Business, M Jamal Uddin received the award from the organizer.
The SME Finance Forum was established by the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) in 2012 as a knowledge center for data, research and best practice in promoting SME finance. As an implementing partner for the GPFI, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) was tasked with managing the initiative.
IDLC was one of the very first financial institutions to realize this gap in the market and thus it came up with signature product, ‘Purnota’ (a comprehensive financial and non-financial solution offering for women-owned enterprises). Back in 2014, IDLC entered into a cooperation agreement with IFC to deliver four components and one of the components was to improve IDLC’s visibility in the women market of Bangladesh. As part of this components, a unique product called “IDLC Purnota” was launched in 2015 to cater to the need to women SMEs.
Monthly Business Review - November 2019
In 2018 alone, total consumption of steel in Bangladesh was 7.5 million metric tons, recording 37.5% growth y-o-y. Per capita steel consumption almost doubled in five years, amounted to 45 kg in 2017. Steel production capacity soared to BDT 30 lakh tonnes in FY 15-16, from BDT 10 lakh tonnes in the preceding fiscal. Thanks to these mega infrastructural projects, Bangladesh is now self-sufficient in billet production, when even five years ago, the country had to import half of the total billet requirement to feed the domestic market. On the other hand, the sale of cement, another prime construction material, registered 12% growth in 2018 y-o-y. Cement consumption in Bangladesh is mostly rooted in individual homemaking (40%), followed by mega projects (35%) and real estate sector (25%). The cement industry, however faces far more significant challenges in the import area, with countries (especially Vietnam) racking up the price of raw materials such as clinker. The market price of cement rose in the past 2 years, this coupled with the fact that there are 32 cement manufacturers in the country and the existence of intense competition among them, makes pricing a significant challenge.
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