Andhra Bank to set up financial literacy centre in Ganjam

As a part of its endeavour to educate the rural people on various banking services, Andhra Bank has proposed to set up a Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Centre (FLCC) in south Orissa’s Ganjam district.

The bank has already set up FLCCs in the four districts of Andhra Pradesh, where it has the lead bank responsibility.

“Andhra Bank is the lead bank in south Orissa’s Ganjam and Gajapati districts and it has proposed to establish FLCC in Ganjam to educate rural people in the district about the banking services”, said a senior officer of the bank.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stressed on the financial literacy among the rural people to bring them under the purview of banking services for ensuring 100 per cent financial inclusion (FI). RBI has developed nine model villages in the state including Pochilima, near Hinjili in Ganjam district.

Meanwhile, Andhra Bank's Smart Card project has been implemented for Electronics Benefit Transfer (EBT) of Government Schemes in the district. Besides, the bank has also finalized a road map to provide banking service outlets in the villages having a population of over 2000.

The bank will reach around 100 such villages under its Berhampur zone where no banking service is available. The Berhampur zone consists of six southern Orissa districts including Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkanagiri, Nabarangapur and the Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh.

The banking services would be provided in the villages of these districts through the Business Correspondence (BC) model. The Government of India has stressed on providing banking services in every village having a population of over 2000 and the RBI has asked the banks to make arrangements to achieve the goal by the end of March, 2011.

Commenting on the bank’s business projection in the Berhampur zone for 2010-11, sources said, the bank has targeted a business of Rs 3038 crore with a growth rate of 35.68 per cent. This includes Rs 2050 crore of deposits and advances worth Rs 1033 crore.

In 2009-10, the bank’s Berhampur zonal office achieved Rs 2273.23 crore business with a growth of 20.32 per cent. The total business included Rs 1547.54 crore deposits and Rs 724.69 crore advances. The growth rate of the deposits and advances were calculated at 18.91 per cent and 26.07 per cent respectively. Total priority sector advances constitute 75.36 per cent of the total advances.