The Microfinance Review

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Self-Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme:Issues and Way Forward


Affiliations
1 Micro Credit Innovations Department, NABARD, Mumbai, India
     

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The women-centric development initiative in the form of SHGBank Linkage Programme (SBLP) has moved ahead, leaving behind all trepidations like SBLP losing contextual relevance, especially due to the emphatic emergence of alternative channels like Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). The horizontal and vertical expansion of SBLP, rise in disbursement of bank loan to SHGs, both in absolute and relative terms and the fall in Non Performing Assets (NPA) during 2015-16 reaffirms the strength of SBLP. The Southern orientation has been receding continuously, mainly due to special focus by NABARD and state governments in deficit states. States like Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal witnessed increased bank credit deployment to SHGs. The NPA level has declined by about one percentage point to 6.4% in 2015-16, contrary to the overall trend of NPA in the banking sector. SBLP on the one hand was used as a platform for launching poverty alleviation and rural development programmes by various state governments and on the other, support of government machineries strengthened SBLP. Over the years, innovations, policy formulations, capacity-building, livelihood initiatives, and support from stakeholders established SBLP as the most widespread financial and economic linkage programme for the bottom of pyramid. This paper broadly brings forth the issues and challenges in furtherance of SBLP, recounts the status of SBLP with respect to growth, distribution and penetration across the regions; convergence of various programmes, microfinance under MFI model and underlines the way ahead in ensuring total coverage of rural households under institutional credit and financial penetration. The inferences in the paper are based on analyses of secondary data collected from various sources.


Keywords

SBLP, Business Correspondents, MFIs.
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  • Self-Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme:Issues and Way Forward

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Authors

B. D. Nayak
Micro Credit Innovations Department, NABARD, Mumbai, India

Abstract


The women-centric development initiative in the form of SHGBank Linkage Programme (SBLP) has moved ahead, leaving behind all trepidations like SBLP losing contextual relevance, especially due to the emphatic emergence of alternative channels like Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). The horizontal and vertical expansion of SBLP, rise in disbursement of bank loan to SHGs, both in absolute and relative terms and the fall in Non Performing Assets (NPA) during 2015-16 reaffirms the strength of SBLP. The Southern orientation has been receding continuously, mainly due to special focus by NABARD and state governments in deficit states. States like Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal witnessed increased bank credit deployment to SHGs. The NPA level has declined by about one percentage point to 6.4% in 2015-16, contrary to the overall trend of NPA in the banking sector. SBLP on the one hand was used as a platform for launching poverty alleviation and rural development programmes by various state governments and on the other, support of government machineries strengthened SBLP. Over the years, innovations, policy formulations, capacity-building, livelihood initiatives, and support from stakeholders established SBLP as the most widespread financial and economic linkage programme for the bottom of pyramid. This paper broadly brings forth the issues and challenges in furtherance of SBLP, recounts the status of SBLP with respect to growth, distribution and penetration across the regions; convergence of various programmes, microfinance under MFI model and underlines the way ahead in ensuring total coverage of rural households under institutional credit and financial penetration. The inferences in the paper are based on analyses of secondary data collected from various sources.


Keywords


SBLP, Business Correspondents, MFIs.

References