NIC Asia expands services in rural areas to promote financial inclusion

Published On: May 1, 2024 03:10 PM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, May 1: Of late, NIC Asia, one of the 20 commercial banks in Nepal, has been aggressively targeting the country’s rural areas for business promotion so as to expand financial inclusion in the country.

Roshan Neupane, chief executive officer of NIC Asia, said they have focused on providing financial services in rural Nepal. “We have opened many new branches in the rural areas, with the aim of providing banking services to a large number of unbanked people,” said Neupane.

According to him, the bank does not look merely at earning high profits; rather, it has focused on implementing a long-term plan to provide loans in the rural areas in order to help reduce poverty and promote employment. “Our policy is banking the unbanked,” he said.

NIC Asia has been offering banking services in many rural districts where the people lack access to banking services. These include geographically challenging locations in rural and remote districts like Mugu, Kalikot, Bajhang, Rukum, Jumla and Salyan.

According to government statistics, a large portion of the country’s population still lives in the rural areas. NIC Asia said it has been operating 72 percent of its branches in rural and suburban areas.

NIC Asia has been providing small and medium enterprise (SME) loans from its 360 branches across the country. The bank has categorized loans between Rs 1.5 million and Rs 50 million under SME loans. As of mid-February 2023, the bank has provided SME loans worth Rs 106.45 billion to more than 18,000 entrepreneurs of the category.

Neupane said the SME loans not only help the businesses concerned, but also promote chain effects at the local level. “Provided a single SME loan taken by an individual employing 1 to 10 people, NIC Asia is estimated to have created jobs for 180,000 people as of now.”

In its establishment period of over two and a half decades, NIC Asia has contributed around Rs 23.07 billion to government revenue. In the last fiscal year, the bank paid taxes worth Rs 3.61 billion to the government and received recognition as one of the largest taxpayers in the country.