With support from the Bangladeshi government, PKSF has been executing the “Sustainable Enterprise Project (SEP)” since 2018 in order to help the country’s microenterprises embrace environmentally friendly business practices. The five-year project has a $130 million budget, of which $110 million and $20 million have been funded by the World Bank (WB) and PKSF, respectively.

The project’s lead company groups in the manufacturing and agricultural industries receive financial and technical support to carry out a range of committed activities. There are currently 64 active subprojects in 30 different financial subsectors.

The project’s goal is to increase the targeted microenterprises’ adoption of environmentally sustainable practices. The PKSF management has approved loans totaling $89.50 million (about BDT 716 crore) for 47 Partner Organizations (POs). Up till June 2022, $84.65 million of the total was distributed among the POs.

Both the SEP Project Management Unit (PMU) and the project-implementing POs offer their officials and project participants skill development and trade awareness training. In FY 2021–2022, a total of 45,486 micro-entrepreneurs (female 20,684, male 24,802) received training in environmental awareness, market linkage, company certification, and environmental clearance in addition to technical skill development.