SKS Microfinance wins GFUSAs Excellence Award

Swayam Krishi Sangam (SKS) Microfinance Private Limited, a leading microfinance institution from Hyderabad, has been awarded the Grameen Foundation USA (GFUSA)'s Microfinance Practitioner Award for Excellence.

Briefing mediapersons , Julie Stahl Peachey, regional director (Asia programmes), Grameen Foundation, USA, said, "SKS Microfinance was chosen for the award considering its financial performance and the management information system (MIS) that it developed to manage small transactions."

SKS Microfinance operates in the drought-prone, semi-arid deccan plateau of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. It launched an MIS called SKS MAPS (Monitoring, Accounts, Portfolio and Smart Cards) to automate village level transactions.

SKS Microfinance has been associated with the Grameen Foundation since 2002 and has so far received $7,50,000 for the development of its automated management system (MIS), said Vikram Akula, founder and CEO, SKS Microfinance Private Limited.

"The Grameen Foundation will also provide access to a Rs 5-crore guarantee fund that will enable us to access funds up to Rs 50 crore from commercial banks," Akula said.

Stating their future plans, Akula said that they plan to disburse a total amount of Rs 174 crore this fiscal, of which Rs 80 crore has already been disbursed. SKS also has plans to extend its services to Orissa and Madhya Pradesh by the end of this year.

Founded in 1998, SKS Microfinance converted from a non-profit society to a for-profit company and received its Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) license in 2004. SKS currently has 42 branches and over 400 employees in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, and offers in addition to basic savings and loan products an insurance product.

Grameen Foundation USA (GFUSA) is a global non-profit organisation founded in 1997 with a global network of 52 partners in 22 countries. It instituted the Excellence Award and Pioneer Award five years ago. The Pioneer Award for 2005 was presented to Fonkoze of Haiti.