GUWAHATI: The North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi) held its 27th Annual General Meeting on Wednesday at its registered office here to present its Annual Report for the year 2021-22 to the shareholders.
While welcoming the shareholders, CMD of NEDFi PVSLN Murty highlighted its achievements and informed that the year had the highest growth of sanctions and disbursements and the corporation also crossed gross profit of Rs 100 crore, stated a press release.
A panoramic view of last year's financial performance of the corporation showed noticeable improvement in all parameters. Thus, despite the challenges posed by the operating environment, the corporation now has more shock absorbing capability. The corporation's risk management practices have delivered better results, especially in containing slippages.
The corporation has till date facilitated around Rs 18,000 crore of capital investments in the region through its interventions. The major thrust areas are healthcare, tourism & hospitality, education and agri processing.
In FY 2021-22, the gross income of the corporation increased year-on-year by 7.77% to Rs199.21 crore against Rs184.84 crore.
During the year, the corporation's sanctions and disbursements were Rs 719.01 crore and Rs 415.23 crores against the previous year's figures of Rs 380.06 crore and Rs 311.29 crore respectively. As on March 31, 2022, the Corporation had extended financial assistance to 8,694 projects with cumulative sanction and disbursement of Rs 6,587 crore and Rs 4,949 crore respectively. The outstanding loan component as on March 31, 2022 was Rs 1,228.11 crore against Rs 1,104.50 crore in the previous year.
The corporation will continue to focus on the micro, small & medium enterprises and micro borrowers by extending financial assistance at concessional rate of interest, while supporting project funding to all major sectors, mentoring assistance, capacity building, marketing linkages, develop new products & services and use of technology to reach out to the un-served & under-served areas for more geographical coverage. Through the Business Correspondence (BC Model), the corporation is extending its arms to the grass-root borrowers at a cheaper rate of interest.
The corporation, jointly with the Ministry of DoNER, has set up the North East Venture Fund (NEVF) with a corpus of Rs100 crore. As on March 31, 2022, the Fund had provided in-principle commitment of Rs 81.86 crore for 51 portfolio companies.
Apart from extending financial assistance, NEDFi undertook various initiatives to promote entrepreneurship in the region. Some of them are: New Schemes were launched to assist micro entrepreneurs, artisans, tea growers, self-employed professionals and doctors. Besides, the NEDFi Micro Lending Scheme was launched to extend direct finance at cheaper rate through Business Correspondents to the micro entrepreneurs in the un-served & under-served areas of the Region. New branches were opened at various locations to increase reach and coverage in the Region. Single window online loan application was launched in NEDFi's web portal (www.nedfi.com). NEDFi signed an MoU with the Federation of Industries of North-Eastern Region (FINER) & Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) for promoting and nurturing entrepreneurship, generating employment and creating empowerment of weaker sections. Under the aegis of North Eastern Council (NEC), NEDFi launched a "one-stop solution" web portal for career and livelihood, titled "Advancing North East". The portal aims to facilitate informed career decisions by the students, job seekers and entrepreneurs of the region and improve their competitiveness at the national and global level.
The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of the Corporation focuses on women empowerment, livelihood enhancement projects, employment enhancing vocational skills and development of craft sector in the rural and backward areas through promotion of entrepreneurship.
The corporation has promoted a society - North East Society for Handicraft Incubation & Livelihood Promotion (NE-SHILP) - to facilitate marketing support to the artisans of the region through participation in exhibitions, trade fairs and sales through its various showrooms and making their products competitive through innovation, skill upgradation and adoption of appropriate tools and technologies. During the year, around 1,500 artisans benefitted from the marketing support initiatives of the corporation.
The Corporation will endeavour to accelerate the growth and demand for credit in the region and has set for itself an aspirational growth target for FY 2023 which will be achieved through sound strategy and innovative approach.
In his address, the CMD of NEDFi thanked the members of the board for their guidance, support and counsel and the unstinting support from the Ministry of DoNER, the State Governments of the region, banks, financial institutions and other organizations in the North-East. He also placed on record the appreciation for the trust and support of all the shareholders - IDBI Bank, LICI, SBI, SIDBI, ICICI Bank, IFCI, SUUTI, GIC & subsidiaries.
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