Nabard working on lending to the poor more transparent

MUMBAI: Agri and rural lender Nabard is working towards addressing the lending concerns and lack of transparency that has hit the growth of the bottom of the pyramid in the financial sector. It is actively working on digitalisation of SHGs as a pilot.

“Once successful it will bring a whole new dimension by bringing in more transparency, maintenance, monitoring and providing credit facilities to SHGs.” said Nabard chairman, Harsh Kumar Bhanwala. “ It will also facilitate seam less communication between SHGs and all the stakeholders including government, banks and NGOs and even the private sector.”

Nabard has facilitated around 9.7 crore poor families in the country to get financially included through its self help group or SHG- Bank linkage programme (SBLP) and has covered 74 lakh SHGs. Through these groups, the poor have close to Rs 10000 crore parked in savings accounts of commercial banks and credit outstanding of more than ?42,927 crore with the formal lending institutions, an official release by Nabard said.

“SBLP has not only augmented financial inclusion and financial literacy among the rural poor, especially women, but have also contributed in developing social capital through women empowerment” said Bhanwala. The contribution of SBLP is considered significant as the government is pushing for higher financial inclusion and literacy.