CFC – New SME initiative to boost shoemaking industry of Rajshahi’s Kaluhati village

SME Foundation established a Common Facility Centre (CFC) for the shoemakers of Kaluhati village in Rajshahi’s Charghat upazila on Friday.

The CFC, set up on a 3000 square-feet site at the village, was provided with 13 state-of-the-art machines for leather cutting, stitching, and finishing, said Dr Md Mafizur Rahman, Managing Director of SME Foundation.

The facility would help the shoemakers to improve the quality of their products using modern technologies, he said. “Our dependence on imported leather goods will be lessened once the initiative turns out a success,” said Dr Rahman.

The initiative is the first of its kind in the country, said Md Shohrub Hossain, Charghat upazila Nirbahi officer.

Some 85 shoemaking entrepreneurs and 500 labourers dependent on them would directly get benefit from the CFC, built at a cost of Tk one crore, he said adding that the facility will function by a committee headed by him.

 

The shoemakers believe that the CFC will remarkably improve their lives by helping them to improve the quality of their products, increase their productivity, and access new markets.

"We are very happy to have this CFC in our village," said Ranju Ali, president of Kaluhati Paduka Cluster. "It will help us to make not only better shoes, but other leather goods and sell them at a higher price."

The shoemakers’ cluster at Kaluhati village was developed in the 1980s, said Sohel Rana, general secretary of the cluster while describing the history of the village.

When one Late Ekabbor Ali of the village had been struggling to afford his family in 1978, his wife Late Rokeya Begum sent her five sons to her parent’s house in Bhairab of Kishoreganj district.

The five sons – Late Syed Ali, Kashem Ali, Amirul Haque, Late Nawshad Ali and Barek Sarker learnt shoemaking from their grandparents for two years.

They returned home in 1980 and Amirul Haque set up the first shoemaking factory in Kaluhati village and other brothers worked for him.

Witnessing their success, other villagers started setting up their own factories turning the village into a shoemaker’s hub with their selling network stretching far and wide across the country.

After the Awami League government came to power in 2009, the local lawmaker and state minister for foreign affairs Mohammad Shahriar Alam started supporting the small industries of shoemaking.

From a total of ten factories in 2010, the village now boasts of a total of 65 shoemaking factories providing jobs and livelihood for around 10,000 people by producing 5,00,000 sandals and loafers annually, Sohel Rana said.

Attending on requests from the state minister Alam, SME Foundation conducted a study in the village in 2013 and provided training to the shoemakers for the last seven years, said the foundation’s MD Dr Mafizur Rahman.

Finally, they set up the CFC at the village under a Tk 2.5 crore project with the state minister inaugurating it on Friday. The CFC will be furnished with 15 more machines gradually, he said.

The state minister spent Tk 5.5 lakh from his personal fund for providing CFC and industrial electricity connection, Sohel Rana said.

The CFC will also help the shoemakers to learn new skills and improve their business management, he said adding, “Other than sandals and loafers, the CFC will help us manufacture new leather goods including belts, moneybags and ladies’ bags.”

The SME Foundation said that it plans to set up more CFCs in other parts of the country to help small businesses grow and contribute to the economy.

State Minister Mohammad Shahriar Alam said that the CFC is a major initiative of the government to support SMEs.

“Our government is committed to providing all necessary support to SMEs to help them grow and contribute to the country's economy,” he said.

In the 2013 study, the SME Foundation also identified a total of 177 clusters of light engineering, handlooms, nakshikantha, small garments, and handicrafts, across the country, said the foundation’s MD.

Some 70,000 businesses of these clusters involve an annual turnover of Tk 30,000 crore and 20 lakh workers and workers, he said.

“Once the shoemaking cluster of Kaluhati achieves success, we will extend our CFC projects to other clusters,” said the MD Dr Md Mahfizur Rahman.

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