FM urges bankers to beyond towns

Finance Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on Friday has urged bankers to extend services to rural areas of the country.

In an interaction organized on financial inclusion by Nepal Bankers' Association (NBA), Dr. Bhattarai said that the bankers should go beyond towns to help marginalised groups like women, Dalits and Janajatis.

Telling bankers to reach 80 percent of people who do not have access to financial institutions in rural areas, he also assured of government's support to such banks.

Dr Dipendra Bahadur Chhetri, governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) said that the inclusion was a challenging issue.  "Financial inclusion is a priority to be achieved through expansion of banking services, narrowing economic gaps and affirmative action," he said. NRB is planning to mobilize 236 banks and financial institutions in this regard.

Vice chairman of the National Planning Commission Guna Nidhi Sharma said that the rural economy could be achieved through diversification of rural lives like raised income level, increased savings and provision of technology. "The role of financial institutions is important to divert the rural economy to more diversified areas," he said.

Dr. Gautam Sen, director of the Gandhi-Einstein Foundation, in his keynote address on inclusive banking, said inclusion can't be achieved by the private sector alone and that the government must support it.

Sen also advised of bringing economically disadvantaged groups like farmers, women and the landless to national banking net for implementing inclusion banking.