n Bangladesh, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which constitute 99.97% of all industries and absorb 86% of the labor force, have huge potential for employment creation and income generation (Asian Development Bank 2021). MSMEs contribute 25% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and the government’s target is for this to reach 32% by 2024. However, access to affordable finance has remained a big hurdle to reaching this goal. While microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide more than 50% of their loan portfolios to support MSMEs, their transaction costs are high. One option to make MFIs affordable, which is being increasingly considered, is to digitalize microfinance lending. A baseline study was carried out from October to December 2021 to pilot a randomized controlled trial intervention to determine whether digitalized microfinance can be introduced at an affordable price. The baseline study addresses a number of issues related to MSMEs: their inputs, outputs, and productivity; access to microfinance; and exposure to shocks including the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Based on the poverty map of the country from the 2016 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), a sample frame was developed with some 24,000 households from 124 villages in 5 districts in the impoverished Rangpur division of Bangladesh. About 3,000 households were randomly sampled, keeping the proportionality of MFI participation and MSME households from the census (sampling frame). On average, 42.5% of surveyed household heads have no education at all, and only 7.6% have completed higher secondary education and above. Furthermore, 78.2% of the households are functionally landless (owning less than 0.5 acre of land), with only 2.4% households being medium to large landholders (owning 2.5 acres or more). The majority of household heads are self-employed in the farm sector (42%), followed by wage employment (40%). About 32% of households are involved in MSME activities. Among them, about 52% are engaged in services, about 43% in trading, and only about 5% in manufacturing.