Enhanced efforts are being made in expanding the sector’s access to credit, says Ramann
Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the principal financial institution engaged in the promotion, financing and development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), has entered into a collaboration with Google for having a social impact lending programme with financial assistance up to Rs.100 crore at competitive interest rates targeted at micro enterprises.
This one-of-a-kind programme with Google brings a corpus of US$15 million (approx. Rs. 110 crore) to micro enterprises as a crisis response related to COVID-19 to reinvigorate the MSME sector in India, said SIDBI.
The collaboration envisages a loan programme targeted at micro enterprises (having turnover up to Rs. 5 crore), with loan sizes ranging between Rs.25 lakh and Rs.1 crore, being implemented by SIDBI.
The programme, with suitable interest rate concession, focuses on enterprises run by women entrepreneurs.
“MSMEs are undoubtedly the life blood of the Indian economy serving as catalysts to economic growth and helping usher in equitable growth and social change. In line with SIDBI’s mandate and commitment to the sector to ensure its sustainable growth, we have launched various programs for an emergency response to the sudden advent of COVID-19 such as SAFE, SAFE plus scheme, AROG, and SHWAS,” Sivasubramanian Ramann, Chairman and Managing Director of SIDBI, said in a release on 18 Nov 2021.
“Today we feel proud that SIDBI’s efforts in reviving the sector are backed by a strong collaboration with Google, a public spirited and conscientious partner. This one-of-a-kind program brings a corpus of Rs.110 crore to small businesses and crisis response related to COVID-19 to reinvigorate the MSME sector in India. This also marks SIDBI’s launch of a paperless journey to its customers from onboarding to the disbursal stage.
“With renewed hope in making a full and vital economic recovery, we look to this collaboration to enhance our efforts in expanding the sector’s access to credit and are very eager to see the constructive impact that we can achieve together,” he said.
“We have had a longstanding commitment to enable India’s small businesses in leveraging the opportunity provided by digital so that they scale, innovate and reach new customers through a range of tools, services and products that is especially designed for them,” added Sanjay Gupta, Vice President & Country Manager, Google India.
“Right at the outset of COVID-19, we launched a series of efforts that responded to the fact that these businesses have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. In joining hands with SIDBI, which has a deep understanding of the growth needs of this large and dispersed ecosystem, we’re pleased to expand our support to these enterprises.”
Since its formation in 1990, SIDBI has been impacting the lives of citizens across various strata of the society through its integrated, innovative and inclusive approach. Be it traditional, domestic small entrepreneurs, bottom-of-the-pyramid entrepreneurs, to high-end knowledge-based entrepreneurs, SIDBI has directly or indirectly touched the lives of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) through various credit and developmental engagements. SIDBI 2.0 carries the vision of inclusive, innovative and impact-oriented engagements. #investment #economy #banking /fiinews.com
