Wrong to say poor people do not pay back loans: Governor
KATHMANDU, FEB 15:
The micro-finance organisations that were established with the commitment to provide loans to poor people are charged of hesitating to provide loans to the poor and the backward people.
Speaking at a three-day conference of the micro-finance organizations that kicked off today, Governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Dr. Yubaraj Khatiwada, blamed that the micro-finance that were established for providing loans to poor that do not have collateral have began to run away from the poor.
Dr Khatiwada questioned that how the poverty could be alleviated if we say that the poor do no pay back loans. He urged the micro-finance owners, "Poverty is multidimensional, invest recognizing the safety measures, otherwise allow us to scrap the licenses."
He said it was only the poor imagination of any person or organization to say that the poor people do not return the loans, it is micro-financial organization's responsibility to create social and other environment for the investment.
Governor Dr. Khatiwada also expressed concern for the micro-financial organisations that have earned the profit by making financial transactions to hesitate to pay tax to the state. Director of the RMDC Shankerman Shrestha, said the micro-finance cooperatives organizations have invited malpractices as they make such organisations profit oriented though they were established with a view to bringing the poor out of their poverty.
Similarly, programme coordinator of the micro-finance conference 2013 and Nirdhan Utthan Bank's Vice-chairman Dr. Harihardev Panta said the conference was organised with a view to providing necessary information and importance of micro-finance in alleviating poverty through the micro-financial organisations.
The Conference is started from today and will end on February 16.A programme has been scheduled to present 43 working papers, identifying problems, challenges and further possibilities in the micro finance sector and plans to guide policy makers and stakeholders of the sector, said organisers.
Some 800 people including policy makers, practitioners, promoters, students, micro-finance experts and representatives of development agencies, NGOs and INGOs, among others, are participating in the conference.
Such type of micro-finance conference was held in 2008 for the first time and in 2010 for the second time in the country. This year, the conference has an objective to preparing responsible and sustainable micro-finance.
The three-day conference is organised jointly by the Centre for Micro Finance-Nepal, Nepal Rastra Bank, Micro-Finance Bankers' Association, Plan Nepal, Poverty Alleviation Fund, RMDC, Save the Children, Small Farmers' Bank, Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, among others.
At the programme, different speakers claimed that micro-finance organizations are alive as the wishes for poor people.Some 1.8 million people have been taking direct benefit from different micro finance providing organizations in the country, it is learnt.
Source: THT
