Proceedings of 13th Asian Business Research Conference 26 - 27 December, 2015, BIAM Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh, ISBN: 978-1-922069-93-1 Access to Formal Sector Finance for Women-Led SMEs in Bangladesh: The Refinancing Scheme of Bangladesh Bank Ruba Rummana Today women in Bangladesh hold high national posts and are engaged in businesses. But historically they were not so involved in economic activities due to religious, cultural and traditional barriers. Some social and economic barriers still remain which act as obstacles for the development of women entrepreneurship Nevertheless women entrepreneurship is a rapidly growing phenomenon in Bangladesh. As an advocate of the inclusive development strategy, Bangladesh Bank is pursuing SME development through undertaking pro-active Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) financing programmes of which Refinancing is a center piece towards ensuring enhanced access of these enterprises to institutional financing. As the guardian of the economy, Bangladesh Bank is expected to play a key role to the development of women entrepreneurship. The Refinancing Scheme of Bangladesh Bank provides a new window to the development of women-entrepreneurs and opens new and favorable opportunities for them. This paper is an attempt to address various issues related to this scheme, particularly with respect to the development of women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. ________________________________________________________ Ruba Rummana, Assistant Professor, Department of Arts and Sciences, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Email: rubachy@yahoo.com and ibchy@eee.uiu.ac.bd