Disbursement of farm loan by the scheduled banks exceeded their total target in the end of last fiscal year (FY) as banks strengthened disbursement drives, a central bank official said.
The banks witnessed a high demand for credit from the country's agriculture sector, he added.
The credit disbursement flow was satisfactory during the FY, a state-run banker said.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) is now taking special care of farm loan disbursement to jack the agro-based sector of the country up, an official concerned of the BB told the FE.
Besides, loan disbursement in the sector has increased due to proper monitoring of the central bank, he said adding that the BB has already advised the banks to expedite both recovery and disbursement of farm loans.
The official expressed optimism that loan disbursement target in the sector would be achieved at the end of the fiscal year following various initiatives of the BB and proper disbursement of loan by the banks.
Loans are being disbursed in large scale in the agro sector every fiscal year (FY), he mentioned.
As per the BB statistics as of June 30 last, the banks disbursed farm loans to the tune of over Tk 248.4 billion till July-June period of the last FY.
The total target was fixed at Tk 204 billion for the FY 2017-18. Of the target, some Tk 95.90 billion and Tk 108.10 were fixed for disbursement by eight state-owned banks and private commercial banks (PCBs) and foreign commercial banks (FCBs) respectively, according to the BB data.
The state-run banks have disbursed higher amount of loan than PCBs and FCBs.
Of over Tk 213.93 billion, eight state-owned banks disbursed Tk 100.76 billion or over 105 per cent, and the remaining Tk 113.17 billion or over 104 per cent was disbursed by PCBs and SCBs.
