GUWAHATI: An interactive meeting by Dr G R Chintala, the chairman of NABARD, with the CEOs of Micro Finance Institutions (MFi) from NER was recently held at the Indian Institute of Bank Management (IIBM) campus, Khanapara, Guwahati.
In his keynote address, Dr Chintala spoke about the resilience of the MFi sector and its importance to the rural economy. He clearly distinguished some of the NBFCs which had adopted unethical and greedy practices, which led to clampdown by the government. But elimination of these malpractices would lead to a healthy growth of the MFIs and give strength to the sector to recover quickly. NABARD is committed to engage with the sector closely by building up capacities of MFIs through IIBM in the NER. One such programme has already been sponsored by NABARD. NABARD would also like to finance some MFIs of the region based on their credentials, he said.
The CEOs of the MFIs placed the numerous challenges they faced in doing business and appealed to NABARD to relax some of the norms of Rating Tool so they could access loans from NABARD. The chairman stated that NABARD would look at the proposals from the MFIs in the NER favourably.
IIBM senior faculty, Dr Abhijit Sharma appraised the gathering with regards to the prevalent status of the MFIs in NER and their growth potential thereof. He showed that the MFIs which are localized and headquartered in the region had the ability and the competence to expand, provided they are supported through capacity building and technology infusion, stated a press release.
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