Associating MFIs with SMEs to Assist Post Pandemic Economic Resilience in Bangladesh

Abstract

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are one of the major sources of economic growth. Recent economic growth and development of Bangladesh have been highly linked with the flourishment of SMEs. Access to formal finance is one of the major impediments for the growth of SMEs. The recent economic slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic causes the SMEs to suffer to remain in the business. Supply chain disruption, unsold products, lack of product demand, liquidity crisis become more severe in this case. The government of Bangladesh is trying to help SMEs by providing funds through the banking sector but previous studies show the banking sector is not as effective for SME financing. Besides recent banking sector performance seems to be very poor. Therefore, to ensure the best use of funds we need an alternative channel. Mico-Finance Institutions (MFIs) can play a better role in this case. Several studies have shown microfinance was a successful tool to recover small businesses after natural disasters. This paper aims to address the role of microfinance to post-disaster SME financing and identifies the current gap between these two.