Business correspondents, who partner banks in their financial inclusion programme in rural India, are on a hiring spree. Most firms that operate as business correspondents are looking to double their headcount in next 12-18 months on expectations of higher business opportunities from various government-funded social initiatives and financial inclusion schemes.
FINO, the largest business correspondent in India with operations in 24 states and over 386 districts, plans to increase its employee count to 4,000 by the end of this year from the current 2,500. The company also aims to double the number of field agents or ‘Bandhus’ to 40,000 by March, 2012.
“We are looking to have 100,000 field agents by 2015. Taking financial services to micro clients require scale and the ability to expand into deeper geographies. For that, you need more people. Our customer base is expected to increase to 50 million by end of this year from the current 36 million,” Manish Khera, chief executive officer of FINO, told Business Standard. The field agents are typically recruited from local colleges and employment bureaus and hired on a contractual basis. The remuneration on an average varies between Rs 2,000-4,000 per person per month.
The government’s ambitious plan to provide banking and financial services in rural villages has already led to the growing importance of business correspondents in financial inclusion drive. Villages covered through business correspondents increased to 76,801 at the end of March from 33,158 a year ago, according to data available with the Reserve Bank of India. The target set for business correspondents now is to cover 197,494 villages by March 2012 and 320,412 villages by March 2013.
“There is a huge opportunity ahead of us, which is equally challenging. We are preparing ourselves in anticipation of that. We have over 1,000 employees on our rolls. There will be another 400 people who will join us by the end of this year,” said Anirban Roy, managing director of SEED Financial Services. The New Delhi-based firm also plans to have 12,000-15,000 field agents by March 2012 from 5,000 now.
Mumbai-based A Little World, also plans to hire around 5,000 agents taking the total count to 15,000 by the end of this year. Most business correspondents have initiated talks with private equity investors to finance their expansion programme. Last month, FINO raised about Rs 150 crore by selling a part of its stake to Blackstone.
