Jamuna Bank Opens 100-Hour Entrepreneurship Training in Panchagarh

Jamuna Bank PLC launched a 100-hour entrepreneurship training program on October 19, 2026, at the RDRS Training Centre in Panchagarh, a district in Bangladesh's far north. The course runs for one month, according to a press release issued by the bank.

The money behind the program tells a larger story than the launch itself. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) funds the initiative, which operates under the Skills for Industry Competitiveness and Innovation Program (SICIP). The Finance Division of the Ministry of Finance implements it, while the SME & Special Programs Department of Bangladesh Bank provides overall supervision.

That structure places a private bank's local training event inside a national skills agenda. It also raises the practical question the press release does not address: how many trainees enrolled, and what share of them go on to start or expand businesses.

Who attended the launch?

Mohammed Walid Hossain, Executive Program Director of SICIP and Additional Secretary at the Finance Division, attended the inaugural ceremony as Chief Guest. Three officials joined him as Special Guests:

• Myenul Hasan, Deputy Executive Program Director of SICIP and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance
• Ms. Mahmuda Akhter, Assistant Executive Program Director of SICIP and Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Finance
• Md. Masum Billah, Program Director of SICIP and Additional Director, Bangladesh Bank

Noor Mohammed, Deputy Managing Director and Chief Business Officer of Jamuna Bank PLC, chaired the ceremony. The bank's presence ran deep: Nasrul Hadi Mohammad Nusrat, Senior Assistant Vice President and Head of SME Marketing at Jamuna Bank, attended, as did Md. Rashed Mamun, Assistant Vice President and Manager of the bank's Panchagarh branch.

Bangladesh Bank also sent Md. Wasim, Joint Director and Deputy Project Director of the program. In plain terms, the guest list spanned four layers of the project: the ministry, the central bank, the ADB-funded program office, and the commercial bank hosting the training.

What did the speakers say?

Hossain, the Chief Guest, described the initiative as an important milestone in developing new entrepreneurs and supporting the country's economic growth. He closed his remarks by thanking the guests, trainees, officials, staff members, and print media representatives for their participation.

The statement is standard protocol language for such ceremonies. It contains no enrollment figures, no budget for the Panchagarh batch, and no targets for how many participants the program expects to reach. The press release likewise omits the selection criteria for trainees and whether the course carries any fee.

What the release does establish is the scale of the commitment per trainee: 100 hours spread across one month works out to roughly 25 hours a week, close to a full-time schedule for participants who may already be working or running small operations.

Why does a bank run skills training?

For Jamuna Bank, the commercial logic is straightforward. The lender's SME division supplied two senior officials to the event, and its local branch manager sat in the audience. Entrepreneurs trained under an ADB-funded program are potential borrowers, and the bank's SME Marketing head has a direct interest in cultivating that pipeline.

For the government, the event extends SICIP's reach into Panchagarh, a district that sits near the border with India and has historically received less industrial investment than Bangladesh's central belts. A press release does not confirm outcomes, but it does confirm priorities.

The next test comes after the month ends: whether the 100 hours translate into loan applications, registered businesses, or jobs. Neither the bank nor the program office has yet published those numbers, and until they do, the milestone claim rests on attendance, not results.