95% of farmer households in NE sans banking - Deepak Mohanty

Executive Director of the RBI, DK Mohanty addressing the gathering at the ‘Financial Outreach’ camp held on Wednesday, March 23 in at Chumukedima village.

DIMAPUR, MARCH 23 (MExN): The Reserve Bank of India as part of its platinum jubilee celebrations is currently in the midst of ‘Financial Outreach’ campaign to reach out to the ‘unbanked’, particularly at the rural areas. The mission is to extend hundred percent ‘financial inclusion’ to every household in the country.   The Executive Director of the RBI, DK Mohanty was in Dimapur on Wednesday, March 23 attending one such outreach camp organised at Chumukedima village. Today’s was the fifth such camp held in the north east this year. Other officials present at the camp included - Surekha Marandi, Regional Director, RBI Guwahati; Kevikha Kevin Zehol, Deputy Secretary, Finance; CC Mitra, Director, IIBM; BB Sangma, Banking Ombudsman, Guwahati; Dr Bhaskar J Sharma, GM SBI, Guwahati; Dr US Saha, GM, NABARD, Dimapur; DC Maongwati Aier and officials from other financial institutions.  The apex financial institution of the country has already conducted one at Khonoma village under Kohima district in November last year during the first phase of the campaign (2009-10). The efforts of the RBI, notwithstanding, Mohanty revealed that 75 years since the foundation of the RBI: “As many as 145 million households or about 43% of the adult population in the country still do not have access to banking…” The situation is grimmer in the north east. “About 95% of the farmer households (in the region) do not have access to formal finance.”  It is high time that the villagers should the take lead role side by side with the formal banking system in making their villages as productive units and self sufficient, Mohanty challenged. As such, the RBI is on mission mode to bring the remaining 47% of the population under the fold of mainstream banking system inorder to achieve ‘financial inclusion’ in every nook and corner of the country. “We are here with you today to share your dream of ‘financial inclusion’ and interact and share your experience regarding availability of banking services and understand the problems… in a better way. In this mission, everyone has an important role and responsibility to play and the rewards and benefits will also be enjoyed by all.” To this end, he informed that there are a plethora of initiatives which have been launched for the northeast like capital subvention (financial assistance) for recurring expenses for opening branches, provided the state governments concerned grant the premises and security.   Mohanty emphasized that the RBI want to ensure that every adult villager has a bank account and are able to save their money and avail bank loans. Emphasizing on loans, he said that they are unlike subsidies or grants. Loans should be used mainly for productive purpose since they have to be paid back with interest, he stressed. “Once you pay back your loan you will have a good rapport with the bank and you will get a bigger loan in the next round which will be a win-win situation for both the bank and you.”  “There is also a plan extend banking services to all villages with population of 2000 and above by 2012.” “The RBI has identified 196 such villages in Nagaland and allotted to various banks. The services will either be brick of mortar branches, through once a week mobile services or through banking correspondences according to the capacity of the banks,” he said.   He also put in a word of caution, urging the villagers to be wary of unscrupulous companies and other entities collecting deposits from the general public illegally under various schemes through network marketing. Some of these companies even claim fraudulently that they have the RBI’s approval, he further warned.

CM inaugurates Customer Service Point

Nagaland State Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio on March 14 inaugurated Customer Service Point (CSP) of banking correspondent at Panchayat Hall Kigwema Village. In his inaugural speech he stated that the success implementation of this project would go to other villages of the state. He said that opening of this CSP Banking Correspondent is to provide loan to all the villagers of the rural areas and called upon the villagers to avail the opportunity. Today some people lent money at the rate of 10% per month whereas Bank provide loan at the rate of 1% per month, where Rio said that people lost their belonging or fail in their business due to high rate of interest charged by the public and encouraged the gathering to avail loan at the lowest rate of interest. Rio also said that college students are encouraged to open their Bank Account to draw their scholarship for easy transaction and further added that within six months about 50000 people has opened Bank Account in the state. He said that many of our people take loan and not pay/refund the loan in time. One must know the procedure to seek loan from the bank and pay back the loan in time, one must also get insured from the insurance company so that if their business failed they can get compensation from the company, Rio said. The inaugural programme was chaired by MLA, Advisor IT & C, Vikho-o Yhoshu while the invocation was pronounced by Pastor, Kigwema Baptist Church, Zhavi. Chairman, Kigwema Village Council, Zapuo Zhasa delivered the welcome address and AGM, State Bank of India, RBO Dimapur, A.K. Das gave a briefing on CSP. Short speeches were also delivered by K. Ashi Khieya OSD (Revenue) Finance Department, N. K. Gayan G.M RBI, Guwahati and Tilok Das DGM SBI Guwahati. Cultural item was also presented by Kigwema Village and vote of thanks was proposed by VDB Secretary Kigwema Village, Thorie.

SBI launch ‘Tiny card’ scheme in Dimapur

The State Bank of India launched ‘SBI Tiny no frills account’ in Dimapur on Wednesday, February 16. It is part of the Reserve Bank of India’s ‘Financial Inclusion Programme’.  “The State Bank of India with over sixteen thousand four hundred plus branches has taken up this challenge by introducing `SBI Tiny no frills account` for the urban slum communities & Rural India. In this new account there is no need of `KYC` (or Know Your Client) documents and the account can be opened with a zero balance. In this account one can deposit or withdraw from Rs.10/- to Rs.10,000/- the upper limit for this account is Rs.50,000/-. Bank has various loan schemes to cater different needs of rural farmers and urban slum based persons.” For this programme the SBI has tied up with NGO’s who will play the role of ‘Customer Service Providers’ or rather work like a local branch. In this way the NGO’s will also benefit while the “RBI will be benefited as it is making this database for the (Unique Identity Number) UID scheme of the Government of India.” “The aim of this unique scheme is to cover as many of the poor unbanked population in the country.” In Nagaland, Thahekhu village became the first place to have the facility of this unique scheme today, in the form of a ‘Customer Service Point’.  It was launched in the presence of SBI officials of Dimapur. The Tiny Card with biometric identification is SBI’s answer to the challenge of financial inclusion of one lakh villages in the country.  SBI had recently announced plans to cover one lakh villages through the extensive network of business facilitators and business correspondents. Among other benefits, the cards are currently being used as a means of payment of government benefits directly to the poor persons, such as pension payments and wages under the rural employment guarantee programme. SBI is also looking at adding facilities like fund transfers through the Tiny cards. The cards also provide services like micro savings, micro credits, micro insurance and utility payments.