Seven commercial banks seek permission to disburse grants

Kathmandu March 9- Seven commercial banks have sought permission from the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) to disburse Rs200,000—a grant to be given to earthquake victims by the government to rebuild their houses. 

Citizens Bank, Global IME Bank, Nepal Investment Bank (NIBL), NMB Bank, Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB), Sanima Bank and Siddhartha Bank have proposed NRA to open 173 branchless banking points in 14 earthquake-affected districts including Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur. The banks, through Nepal Bankers’ Association, have proposed NRA to charge Rs1050 per beneficiary to disburse the grant amount in three installments. NRA officials have said that they are yet to finalise the deal and award the contract to the aforementioned seven banks. 

However, in case of Dolakha, the Authority has made an agreement with Sakchyam, an access-to-finance initiative funded by UK Aid and two banks—NIBL and RBB—to start the pilot project.NIBL and RBB have already started collecting information of the beneficiaries in Dolakha and have pledged to disburse Rs50,000, the first installment of the grant, within a week. The banks, with support from Sakchyam, have already set up more than 110 branchless banking points in different earthquake-affected districts to provide banking services. 

According to Sakchyam, it is supporting 286 branchless banking openings in the Mid and Far-West and in quake-affected districts. Source: TKP