One of Bangladesh’s leading female entrepreneurs, who was recently appointed President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), is planning a new National Credit Portal for women in the industry who struggle to access capital to expand their business.
Rubana Huq, managing director of one of Bangladesh’s largest conglomerates Mohammadi Group, admitted that her appointment as the first female chief of the association had faced a “lot of opposition”.
“That a woman [will be] leading this sector is a hugely disturbing factor for many men in Bangladesh,” Huq said in one of her first international interviews since her appointment with the UK’s ‘Daily Telegraph’ newspaper.
“Whether the pressure is going to be worth taking, I don’t know, but I want to set a standard for women and tell them that anything is possible,” she said.
As President, she plans to introduce a National Credit Portal so that entrepreneurial women can directly connect with banks to obtain necessary loans. She will also introduce a female-to-female mentorship scheme in Bangladesh so the nation’s scarce but growing network of businesswomen can inspire and advise others.
“Our Central Bank has a rule that at least 10 per cent of credit has to be given to women but in reality it is something like 2 to 3 per cent,” she explained.
While female employment rates have improved – from 4 per cent in 1974 to 33.9 per cent in 2015 – she admits the country still has a long way to go. Her experience with the Mohammadi Group, which owns lingerie, sweater and woven garments factories all over Bangladesh and employs some 4 million people, led her to conclude that “every second house” in Bangladesh possesses a woman producing textiles. Huq believes that these freelance designers are ultimately held back from expanding their businesses by a lack of capital.
She has already established herself as a champion for improving working conditions for women in Bangladesh’s garment factories.
In 2014, she set up a two-year access course and undergraduate degree for women working in factories at the Asian University for Women in Chittagong. The first cohort of students will graduate in 2020 and enter into leadership roles across factories, something Huq says she is very “excited” about.
Safety conditions in the wake of the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse are also top of her agenda. The businesswoman believes it is time for the international Accord safety inspectors put in place in some of the country's factories since the disaster to move on to other countries in the region.
“I want to hit the headlines with a good story of how this sector is positively impacting women in Bangladesh,” she said.