Banks should look at funding unorganised sector: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today exhorted financial institutions, including Nabard, and banks to focus on funding the unfunded so that employment in the unorganised sector goes up.

"It is a fact that people in the unorganised sector are much higher than the organised sector, but the former gets credit with a lot of difficulty," he said at an event organised by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) here.

"If the resources of banks and financial institutions through various schemes are diverted towards this (unorganised) sector, it will help create more employment," he stressed.

Recalling the benefits of self-help groups (SHGs), Jaitley said they have come a long way and generated lakhs of jobs in rural areas.

Since most SHGs are women-led, these have brought in financial security for rural women, Jaitley said, adding that the SHG movement that started 25 years ago with a very few entities has now crossed the 85 lakh mark.

It has been observed that the repayment capacity is much higher with regard to all microfinance schemes, he added.