Business Finance for the Poor in Bangladesh (BFP-B), funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) of The UK Government has signed an agreement with a consortium led by Systems Solutions & Development Technologies Limited (SSD-TECH) for supporting small ecommerce companies in Bangladesh.
The consortium, consisting of SSD-TECH, Mind Initiatives, and eCourier would provide ‘Access to Finance and Outsourcing Services to micro and small (MSE) e-commerce retailers’ in Dhaka and its adjacent areas.
How it works
The consortium will provide a host of services to MSEs including outsourcing, payment and financial management, inventory management and logistics, and advisory services.
In order to increase the efficiency of MSEs and risk management for the financiers, outsourcing services would be provided. MSEs will also receive payment management services from SSD-Tech, which has its own online payment gateway. In the case of cash on delivery (COD) e-Courier will collect the money on behalf of the merchants and deliver the payment to them.
Companies will also receive financial management support including the recording of transactions in an accounting software which would make fund management easier for retailers.
Similarly, customers of the project will receive inventory management and logistics service from E-Courier which would provide total inventory management to retailers –safe storage with insurance, fulfillment service, delivery of merchandise and payment collection against cash on delivery (COD) orders.
The consortium will also provide advisory services to MSEs including capacity building to enhance business performance based on benchmarking of high performing MSEs, continuous performance monitoring of borrower MSEs, sales of merchandise in case of default by the borrowers and other analytical reports and capacity building advisory to the non-bankable MSEs to make them bankable.
The contract was signed by Buddhika Samarasinghe of Nathan Associates London, representing BFP-B Challenge Fund and Hasan Mehdi, CEO of SSD-TECH in a ceremony held at SSD-TECH’s Corporate Office in Dhaka.
Chris August, Team Leader of BFP-B; Mahbubul Matin, Chairman of SSD-TECH; Md. Harun Al-Rashid, Director and Mohiuddin Rasti Morshed, Chief Executive of Mind Initiatives; Biplob G Rahul, CEO of eCourier and other officials of the organizations were also present.
