The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : SKS Microfinance, Citibank to provide small loans

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 10, 2007
ePaper

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

SKS Microfinance, Citibank to provide small loans

Special Correspondent

Needy people across 7,000 villages to get finance at 24 p.c. interest

HYDERABAD: SKS Microfinance and Citibank on Wednesday announced a Rs. 180 crore financing programme for eleven States. It will provide income-generating loans to two lakh people who never had any exposure to banking.

Announcing the partnership at a press conference here, founder and CEO of SKS Vikram Akula said the highlight of the Citi-SKS agreement was that each individual loan originated by SKS was purchased by Citibank, which shared credit risk in the transaction. Loans ranging from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 20,000 would be disbursed to the needy people in 7,000 villages at 24 per cent interest.

Economic opportunity

Mr. Akula said the programme would provide increased economic opportunity to thousands of poor families across the country. The Citi-SKS programme encompassed 49 rural branches of SKS in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and West Bengal.

Under the partnership, the origination and servicing of loans would rest with SKS. He said SKS currently had approximately 6.50 lakh clients, a portfolio of Rs. 301 crore and so far had disbursed Rs. 770 crore in 304 microfinance branches in 11 States.

Citi's Global Director of Microfinance Robert Annibale spoke.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh