NEW DELHI: The World Bank will provide a USD 250-million loan for the National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP) to help women in rural households develop viable enterprises for farm and non-farm products.
An agreement in this regard was signed between the World Bank and the Government of India on Monday. “A key focus of the project will be to promote women-owned and women-led farm and non-farm enterprises across value chains; enable them to build businesses that help them access finance, markets and networks; and generate employment,” Wold Bank said in a statement.
NRETP is an additional financing to the USD 500-million National Rural Livelihoods Project (NRLP) approved by the World Bank in July 2011. The USD 250 million loan has a 5-year grace period, and a final maturity of 20 years.
The NRLP, which is currently being implemented across 13 states, 162 districts and 575 blocks, has so far mobilised more than 8.8 million women from poor rural households into 7.5 lakh self-help groups (SHGs).
According to the release, these groups have leveraged nearly USD 30 billion from commercial banks. The World Bank further said the NERTP would support enterprise development programmes for rural poor women and youth by creating a platform to access finance including start-up financing options to build their individual and/or collectively owned and managed enterprises.
“The project will continue to give technical assistance, skills building and investment support to strengthen women-owned and women-led producer collectives diversify into high value farm and non-farm commodities such as commercial crops and livestock products, and fisheries,” it added. (PTI)
