A two-day intensive training of Bank Sakhis with the objective of “SHG Members as Bank Facilitators- Empowering women to drive Financial Inclusion” was organized by Nagaland State Rural Livelihoods Mission (NSRLM) at Dimapur on September 18 and 19.
According to State Project Manager, Imonenla Imkong Phom, Chief Operating Officer, NSRLM, M Rollan Lotha in his key note address congratulated the pilot batch of Bank Sakhis under NSRLM and said that the State Mission has engaged experienced National Resource Person (NRP) for piloting key strategies to evolve state-specific alternate banking solutions towards achieving door-step financial inclusion.
He said that NSRLM has already mapped 18 banks across Nagaland where savings and loan linkages to SHGs/Federations were commendable. In order to further strengthen and increase access to a wide range of financial services, training and placement of ‘Bank Sakhi’ is being rolled-out with this first batch of training, he added.
M Rollan also spoke on savings and credit experience of Nagaland in the past which has been challenging both at the community level and also by the banks. He further urged participants to be sincere and know their relevant role in achieving the overall goal of the mission.
Resource persons, NRP-FI, B.K Basu and Tilak Das underscored the role the participants will be playing as bank Sakhis after the training. The workshop was facilitated by State Program Manager (M&E/IBCB), NSRLM, Imonenla Imkong Phom and programme manager (FI), NSRLM, Rajusalei Lhouso.