Centre's DAY-NRLM inks pact with SBI's Financial Product to help SHG women enterprises

The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana on Wednesday inked an agreement with State Bank of India to encourage women-led enterprise financing for rural Self-Help Groups.

New Delhi: Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana (DAY) - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) under the Ministry of Rural Development has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with State Bank of India on Wednesday to promote women-led enterprise financing for rural Self-Help Group (SHG).

Additional Secretary, DAY-NRLM Charanjit Singh termed it a significant step in enabling two crore 'lakhpati didis' from SHG women, as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

SBI introduced a specialised financial product, 'Svyam Siddha', exclusively tailored for SHG women entrepreneurs seeking loans up to Rs 5 lakh. This initiative is designed to alleviate the challenges associated with extensive documentation requirements for bank loan applications and reduce the Turn Around Time (TAT), the Ministry of Rural Development said.

The requirement of burdensome documents like quotations and Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) has been dispensed with, allowing an easy application process where a simple loan application with KYC details can be submitted at local SBI bank branches. DAY-NRLM will facilitate the loan application process and oversee loan repayment through its dedicated field cadre, the ministry said.

At the event, a training toolkit package was also launched to promote access to formal finance by SHG women entrepreneurs, marking a significant milestone in DAY-NRLM's commitment to empowering communities and advancing financial inclusion at the grassroots level.

The key modules of this toolkit have been converted into animated videos for self-capacity building of entrepreneurs. This will facilitate access to formal finance for its SHGs women. Developed in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) under the World Bank-funded National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP), this toolkit aims to enhance the capacities of State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs), to facilitate increased access to formal finance by SHG members for their economic enterprises, it added.

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