The banks operating in Orissa have been asked to provide credit linkage to more than 1lakh women self help groups (WSHGs) in the state during the current fiscal.
It involves loans amounting Rs 659.63 crore.
In terms of the number of accounts, the commercial, co-operative and the regional rural banks (RRBs) will open 101483 WSHG accounts during the fiscal.
This is about 19.56 percent more than the last fiscal. In quantitative terms, it is about 45.15 percent more than 2007-08. The banks provided credit linkage to 84,879 WSHGs involving Rs 454.1 crore during 2007-08.
They were able to achieve 84 percent of the physical target, 99 percent of the credit exposure target during the last fiscal, official sources said.
While the commercial banks will provide loans to 81,483 WSHGs involving an amount of Rs 529.63 crore, the regional rural banks (RRBs) are expected to provide Rs 28.15 crore loan to 35,100 WSHGs.
Besides, the Orissa State Co-operative Bank will open 20,000 WSHGs credit accounts providing Rs 130 crore loan during this fiscal.
Similarly, the per group investment target of the WSHGs, has been raised to Rs 65,000 for 2008-09 compared to Rs 45,000 in 2007-08.
The group investment limit has been raised to bring it at par with the limit reached in Andhra Pradesh.
These decisions of the small committee on financing WSHGs constituted by the State Level Bankers’ Committe (SLBC) was ratified in the SLBC meeting held here recently, sources added.
In order to focus on WSHG formation in the left out areas, it was decided to observe September, 2008 as the self help group (SHG) month in the state.
Every Tuesday will be earmarked as the SHG day and all the rural and semi urban branches of various banks will display a signboard for that purpose.
That apart, all efforts will be made to achieve transparency in the operation of the Micro Finance Institutios (MFIs) and their area of operations are to be determined.
The banks have been advised to see that the loans extended by them are deployed for the stated objective and are not diverted for other purposes.
Since sharing the information pertaining to the MFIs in respect of financing to SHGs, WSHGs and Joint Liability Groups was essential, the committe decided that all the lending institutions and the banks have to share the detail information regarding the financing of MFIs and the forward lending by them to these groups.
