FM Sitharaman urges regional rural banks to ensure credit to MSMEs

Udaipur: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday urged regional rural banks (RRB) to ensure credit to the MSME sector and generate awareness of government schemes, especially in aspirational districts, to achieve the goal of 'Vikshit Bharat' by 2047.

Sitharaman held a meeting here to review the performance of nine RRBs of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

The review meeting focused on business performance, upgrading digital technology services, fostering business growth in MSME clusters, and deepening of financial inclusion in rural areas.

The finance minister urged RRBs to generate awareness of Government schemes, especially in aspirational districts. She also appealed to the officials of RRBs to work in coordination to benefit the common people through government schemes.

Sitharaman emphasised active outreach by RRB branches located in MSME clusters to ensure credit to small and micro enterprises. She also asked RRBs to become more customer friendly and leverage its local connect to further improve performance.

In the meeting, discussions were held on making effective action plans to deal with the challenges being faced in the banking sector, a release said.

The minister acknowledged the improvement in technology upgradation of nine RRBs of Western Central region since 2022, it said.

The annual action plan and progress of the banks for the last financial year was also reviewed in the meeting.

Officials of NABARD, SIDBI, Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, nine Regional Rural Banks participated in the meeting and apprised the minister of the progress report of their respective banks.