Guwahati, April 12: The North Eastern Development Financial Corporation Ltd (NEDFi) has launched a special drive to help women entrepreneurs in the Northeast during this fiscal year.
Disclosing this to newspersons last night, NEDFi chairman-cum-managing director J.P. Saikia said the premier financial institution, which assists self-employment in the region, plans to train over 200 entrepreneurs with special emphasis on the fairer sex.
“We will be holding five training programmes exclusively for women and those who successfully complete the course will be given financial assistance under our NEEF scheme. This year, we plan to distribute Rs 7 crore under this scheme,” the senior official said.
To prove that the NEDFi was favourably dispensed towards women, he said 55 per cent of self-help groups supported by NEDFi were women-oriented.
Announcing that NEDFi has already trained 189 first-generation technical entrepreneurs in the region in association with the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship, Saikia said his organisation is trying its best to create a congenial industrial climate in the region to “lure investors”.
But to achieve the desired result it is imperative that the state governments strive to create adequate infrastructure with respect to availability of power and land. NEDFi has decided to sanction Rs 65 crore this year under the project finance scheme and Rs 2 crore under the micro-finance scheme.
“We have realised that to reach the majority segment in the hill states, big loans are not the solution. Therefore, we have started placing emphasis on micro-finance to non-governmental organisations, self-help groups and entrepreneurs in which we have devised some innovative methods of involving communities in lending. So far, NEDFi has financed a total of 122 NGOs involving 1,066 self-help groups covering 10,955 beneficiaries,” he said.
Saikia said the net worth of NEDFi has increased to Rs 220 crore from an initial paid-up capital of Rs 100 crore and its sanction has increased to Rs 63.64 crore from Rs 63.04 crore in the past financial year.