Bangladesh Bank laptop loan scheme for students on the cards

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has an initiative to provide loan at 4 percent interest rate on easy terms for the students of college and universities under a re-finance scheme to purchase laptop for acquiring knowledge by using ICT.

Central bank Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman has taken the initiative at the request of Information and Communication (ICT) Division, which has launched a number of training projects like Learning and Earning, Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment and Governance (LICT), Bari Bose Barolok to create skilled human resources in the country, said official sources.

“If we can give loan at 4 percent interest rate to the farmers on cultivating spices including onion, garlic, ginger why not the same interest rate could be given for the students to purchase laptop,” Dr. Atiur Rahman told a meeting on May 3 at the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division.

He said six percent subsidy will be required to launch a re-finance scheme by the BB for providing laptop loan at 4 percent interest rate for the students and the BB will try to get the subsidized amount from the finance ministry.

“We have already allowed Trust Bank to give laptop loan to the students at 10 percent interest and now we are contemplating to provide loan to the students at 4 percent interest under a refinance scheme,” Dr. Atiur added.

Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University Professor Dr. A A M S Siddique and ICT Secretary Shyam Sunder Sikder were, among others, present at the meeting.

Sajeeb Wazed welcomed the BB Governor’s initiative and said the move will help materialize the government’s plan to build Digital Bangladesh as charted out in the vision 2021, said a source present at the meeting.

ICT Secretary Shyam Sunder Sikder said Bangladesh has many talented students in the colleges and universities and ICT Division has been creating skilled human resources by providing IT training to a large number of students.

If they were given loan at low interest rate to buy laptops they could exercise their latent talent in ICT and contribute to building Digital Bangladesh, he said, adding, “We have requested the BB governor to start a refinance scheme for giving a laptop at low interest rate and he responded very positively.

Earlier, at a function held at Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) auditorium for distribution of laptop to the poor meritorious students Dr. Atiur called upon all banks like Exim Bank Ltd. to use their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund for giving laptop to the meritorious students for educational purposes.

Exim Bank Ltd has already distributed 500 laptops free of cost to the poor meritorious students of Dhaka University, Shajalal Science and Technology University and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) from their CSR fund and committed to provide 2000 more laptops.

“Distributing laptops to the meritorious students from CSR fund of the banks will help acquire knowledge on ICT as well as build a knowledge based society in line with Prime Minister’s Digital Bangladesh vision,” said the BB Governor.

As a follow up to the May 3 meeting, ICT Division in a letter requested the Finance Minister to provide the amount of subsidy to be required for launching the refinance scheme by the BB which would enable the graduate students to buy laptop with loan at 4 percent interest.

The letter said nearly six lac students are admitted into the universities after passing the HSC exams and they would greatly be benefited to learn and earn using ICT side by side their higher education. (Source: BSS)