Aizawl: Mizoram governor Dr Hari Babu Kambhampati has urged the State Bank of India (SBI) to take a leading role in educating the people about financial literacy and increase the enrolment of more people in centrally sponsored social security schemes.
During an interaction with officials of India’s multinational public sector bank and the 43rd largest bank in the world on Monday, Kambhampati said that majority of the state population are still unaware of available social security schemes like – PMSBY, PMJJBY, APY, PMJY and other important schemes like – SUI, PMMY, PMEGP, KCC, MSME, among others.
He urged the bank to take the responsibility of educating their customers on all these beneficial schemes and said that it is the choice of the customers to decide whether or not to enrol in these schemes.
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The governor urged the bank officials to issue loans Android assist more entrepreneurs and small scale business setups in the state.
He pointed out that the coverage of bank in some areas are still poor and urged the banks to extend their services in these areas as soon as the earliest.
.“In some areas like Chawngte town in south Mizoram, people are still queuing up overnight to have an appointment with the bank. These people have the right to have financial services at their doorsteps,” he informed the SBI officials.
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He said that banks, ATMs and other financial institutions should be urgently set up in these less developed areas if financial inclusion initiatives entitled to all the citizens is to be achieved.
Kambhampati also called for the need for proactive roles to entice more entrepreneurs and growth of small business setups in the state.
He urged the SBI being the apex bank in the state to take up the leading role in this regard.
According to the governor, young entrepreneurs are not being encouraged enough at present and they are usually facing difficulties to meet their initial financial needs to set up their business.
He also emphasised the need to encourage the youth of the state to shift their ambition from government jobs to entrepreneurship as a viable solution to increase the state’s revenue.
Officials of SBI led by regional manager LP Lalchangkima also briefed the governor about their normal operation and various schemes implemented through the bank.
The SBI now has 46 branches, 27 CSPs and 106 ATM Booths across Mizoram.
Currently, SBI is maintaining 3,20,357 Saving Bank and Current Accounts with Rs 5,319.38 Crores in deposit( as of December 2021) and dolled out Rs 2,264.26 Crores in advances ( as of December 2021).
As of December 2021, it has a market share of 39.58% in deposit, 33.48% in advances and 30.16 % in priority sector advances.