Zahid Hasan of Tangail went to Malaysia in search of work and learned the details of making steel racks. He couldn’t imagine how useful that skill would be when he returned home. Al Mamun and Nasimul Haque’s Master Racks have given employment opportunities to veterans working in foreign factories like Zahid.

Initially, they imported racks from China and Malaysia, but later Al Mamun and Nasimul Haque built a factory by renting 55,000 square feet of space in Kanchpur. For that factory, they brought in workers who had such work experience in foreign factories. Following the path shown by these two entrepreneurs, 90 percent of the 100 percent export-dependent rack market is now occupied by domestic racks.

Al Mamun and Nasimul Haque, two entrepreneurs of Master Racks and Furniture, have received the IDLC-Prothom-alo SME Award 2022 in the manufacturing industry. Apart from this, Mohammad Imrul Hasan, entrepreneur of organic chicken in agriculture, Mosammat Beauty Begum, founder of Easy Life for Bangladesh in health, Aiman Sadiq, founder of Ten Minute School in education, Subir Nakarek, founder of Nakarek IT Institute in information technology and Maqsuda Khatun, founder of Shabab Leather in women entrepreneur category. In all, 7 entrepreneurs from 6 organizations have received IDLC-First Alo SME Award-2022. They were selected as the best in manufacturing, agriculture, health, education, information technology and women entrepreneurship categories.

Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi handed over the awards to the six winners of the IDLC-Prothom Alo SME Award 2022 in a ceremony held at the Intercontinental Hotel in the capital Dhaka on Monday afternoon. Also present at this time were Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD) of IDLC Finance M. Jamal Uddin, Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman, Chairman of SME Foundation. Masudur Rahman and others. The program was moderated by Prothom Alo’s Chief Coordinator of Digital Transformation and Youth Programs, Munir Hasan.

Nominations for the IDLC-Prothom Alo SME Awards started from September 7. In about a month, 2,229 online and direct applications were received for this award. Out of this, the highest number of 908 applications were received in the category of women entrepreneurs.

A six-member jury selects the best entrepreneurs in six categories. On that board were United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Bangladesh Country Economist Nazneen Ahmed, founder of Baybit Limited and winner of IDLC-First Alo SME Award 2021 Prof. Khondkar Siddique-e-Rabbani, director of SME and Special Programs Department of Bangladesh Bank. Zaker Hossain, National Small and Cottage Industries Association of Bangladesh (NASIB) President Mirza Nurul Gani, SME Foundation General Manager Farzana Khan and FM Plastic Industries Limited Managing Director and National SME Entrepreneur Award 2018 winner Muhammad Gazi Tauhidur Rahman.