The Association of Grassroots Women Entrepreneurs, Bangladesh has spent more than a decade turning informal, home-based enterprise into recognised, bankable business. Its President, Mousumi Islam, has led that work through policy consultations, national fairs and hundreds of training programmes.

We asked her where the association goes next.

On what has changed most in the last decade

[Draft for approval] “When we started, the hardest part was convincing a woman that what she did at home was a business at all. That has changed. Today she knows it is a business. What she still does not have is the door into the system — the licence, the loan, the buyer. Our work has shifted from persuasion to plumbing.”

On the financing gap

The data supports the frustration. Bangladesh Bank requires at least 15% of CMSME lending to go to women entrepreneurs. In early 2026 the actual share stood at roughly 7.28%.

[Draft for approval] “The policy is not the problem. Bangladesh has some of the better women-focused credit policies in the region — 5% interest, Tk 25 lakh against a personal guarantee, a cash incentive for good repayment. The problem is the last mile. A woman in an upazila town does not know the scheme exists, and the branch officer she meets has never processed one. We are trying to be the connection between those two people.”

On what AGWEB will prioritise next

Three directions emerge from the association’s current work.

Cluster-based development

Rather than supporting scattered individuals, AGWEB is grouping members by trade and locality — handloom, jute craft, food processing, tailoring — so that raw material purchasing, training delivery and buyer introductions can happen at scale.

[Draft for approval] “One woman with a good product is vulnerable. Forty women in the same union producing to the same standard is a supply chain. Buyers can work with a supply chain.”

Digital market access

Facebook commerce, marketplaces and digital payments have already changed how grassroots products reach customers. The association’s training now treats digital selling as a core skill rather than an advanced topic, alongside its own online shop for members.

Formalisation as a default

[Draft for approval] “We now tell every new member the same thing in her first month: get the trade licence, get the TIN, open a business account. She may not need them today. But the day an opportunity arrives — a loan, a buyer, an export platform — there is no time to build a six-month bank record.”

On working with government and partners

AGWEB works alongside the Ministry of Industries, Ministry of Commerce, SME Foundation, BSCIC and development partners including ADB, and submits budget recommendations reflecting member realities.

[Draft for approval] “Advocacy only works if you bring evidence. When we ask for simpler documentation or a realistic collateral-free threshold, we are not making a demand — we are reporting what happened to two hundred of our members last year. That is a different conversation.”

On the next generation

[Draft for approval] “The daughters of our first members are starting businesses now. They are online from day one, they understand branding, they are not asking permission the way their mothers had to. My hope is that in ten years an association like ours is less necessary — that a woman with a good idea in Rangpur simply walks into a bank and is treated like any other entrepreneur. Until then, we will keep walking in with her.”

On what she asks of institutions

Three specific requests recur in the association’s advocacy work:

• Banks: train branch-level staff on the women’s refinance products and report gender-disaggregated disbursement publicly.
• Corporates: commit a procurement percentage to women-led CMSME suppliers. Demand does more than donation.
• Government: move toward single-window formalisation so that a licence, TIN and BIN can be obtained in one place, once.

How to be part of it

AGWEB membership is open to women across Bangladesh running or starting cottage, micro and small enterprises.

Learn more: President’s Message · About AGWEB · Become a Member