Canara to help SHGs market products

Canara Bank, which has Rs 450 crore exposure to self-help groups (SHGs) in Karnataka, has initiated a move to provide mobility (moving goods from rural areas to urban centres and also within cities) to help them sell their products in urban centres.

The bank will provide retail mobile vans to women-led SHGs and bicycles to men to sell household products and cottage-industry goods in urban areas.

The mobile vans distributed are custom-built and solar-powered with computerised billing facilities and credit card swiping machines.

These marketing vans are to be stationed in important towns and cities to access urban buyers. Also, the bank has included some viable SHGs and its members to come under its artisans credit card and general credit card schemes.

The bank has 1.2 lakh SHGs under its belt in the state, of which 80,000 SHGs have been credit-linked to the tune of Rs 450 crore.

"This move is part of our strategy to make SHGs viable and flourish by selling village art and crafts to urban consumers. The bank also plans to provide hassle-free credit to rural and semi-urban households, which are members of self-help groups doing well without insisting on security, purpose or end use of the credit," said M B N Rao, chairman and managing director, Canara Bank.

The bank, as part of its CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiatives, has also come out with 'Nammura Santhe' wherein a platform will be created for small women entrepreneurs, artisans and self-employed women to directly sell their products.

Besides, to help SHGs access banking activities in rural areas, Canara Bank has come forward under the financial inclusion scheme to adopt 400 villages in Karnataka that do not have a bank branch or any banking presence.