GRAMEEN FOUNDATION INDIA SIGNS 6 MOUS UNDER THE FLAGSHIP FINANCIAL INCLUSION PROJECT

Grameen Foundation India (GFI) recently signed up agreements with six partners under its flagship project “Business Correspondent Experiments and Demonstrating Scale (BEADS)”.

The project aims to drive financial inclusion in remote rural areas by supporting innovations that will drive productivity, efficiency and viability of the Business Correspondent (BC) networks. In the process, over 280,000 customers and over 1,300 business correspondent agents will directly benefit from the project. The six partners who would be working across 10 different states in India are: Centre for Development Orientation and Training (CDOT); Drishtee Development and Communication Limited; Fincare Small Finance Bank Limited; I25 Outreach Private Limited; Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank Limited; and Sub-K Impact Solutions Limited

The 10 states covered under the project are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. The project supports informed pilots with established BC Network Managers (BCNMs) to test cost-effective and agile ways of establishing, on-boarding and training new BC Agents and to improve the viability of individual agents by diversifying and increasing revenue as well as working on customer empowerment.

Prabhat Labh, CEO, Grameen Foundation India said, “Business Correspondent model enabled by India’s robust digital ecosystem holds immense potential to drive financial inclusion and economic growth in India’s hinterland, and effectively serve the under-served populations, particularly women. We are truly excited about partnering with leading organisations in this space which are keen to innovate, learn and scale their impact.”

This project will test and scale effective BC models and approaches and engage interested stakeholders in order to drive sectoral learning, replication and transformation.