SBI, IOC link up to empower farmers

State Bank Of India (SBI) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) have tied up to implement the bank's financial inclusion programme for farmers through the oil company's Kisan Seva Kendras, an official said here on Monday.

Under the agreement, SBI will provide access to banking services for the farmers utilising the IOC's kiosks and also supplement their incomes by earning revenue on banking transactions.

The IOC has set up around 6,500 KSKs in rural and remote areas which provide various agricultural services like diesel, seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and the like to the farming community.

The new SBI-IOC initiative will help farmers avail facilities and various banking products and services like bank accounts, term deposits, recurring deposits, micro-credit, remittances, social security schemes, Aadhaar Seeding through the kiosks.

The MoU was signed by SBI's chief general manager, rural business K. M. Trivedi and IOC's general manager, retail sales Sivasis Dey in the presence of top officials like SBI National Banking Group Managing Director Rajnish Kumar and IOC's Executive Director, Retail Sales, D. K. Sharma.

SBI, which has 62,341 Customer Service Points handling over one million transactions daily in India, is already facilitating farmers to buy agriculture inputs by using the Rupay Debit Cards, thus eliminating the need to carry large amounts of cash.

--IANS

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