NABARD''s microFinance initiative emerges as the largest micro finance programme in the world
By Our Banking Bureau | 30 Jun 2004
The microFinance or the mF initiative of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has emerged as the largest micro finance programme in the world. What started with a modest 500 self-help groups (SHGs) in 1992 has 10,79,091 SHGs credit linked to banks as on 31 March, 2004. NABARD has set a target of one million credit linked SHGs by the year 2007.
A bank statement issued said that banks have disbursed an aggregate loan of Rs3,904 crore to these SHGs, which has helped over 16 million poor families. Over 90 per cent of the SHGs financed by the banks are women groups. Loan repayments from these groups have been coincidentally 95 per cent. During the year 2003-04, as many as 3.61 lakh new SHGs were provided with bank credit. Banks have provided total loans of Rs1,855.53 crore to groups of poor people without collateral, with refinance of Rs705.44 crore from NABARD.
The SHG bank Linkage Programme is being implemented through a large number of partners and over 560 banks and 35,000 bank branches are participating in the programme. More than 3000 NGOs and a large number of farmers' clubs, are also participating in the programme.
The
statement added that NABARD provides grants to NGOs,
regional rural banks, central cooperative banks and
farmers' clubs for the formation and promotion of self-help
groups.
