94pc SMEs saw sales drop for Covid

Sales of some 94 per cent of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) dropped during the pandemic and some 21 per cent faced closure, leading to around 37 per cent of employees losing jobs, revealed SME Foundation yesterday. 

Some 70 per cent of the employees were at risk of losing their jobs, said Md Mofizur Rahman, the foundation's managing director.

He was addressing a seminar on "Rethinking MSME Finance: A Post-Crisis Policy Agenda" jointly organised by SME Foundation and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in Dhaka.

He also said some 83 per cent of the enterprises incurred losses and some 33 per cent could not repay loans.

Rahman suggested providing more stimulus packages or enabling easy loans for the recovery of the cottage, micro and SMEs from the pandemic's severe fallouts.