ICICI Bank to focus on agri sector

The ICICI Bank, the second largest bank in the country, will focus on the rural market and the agriculture sector for its future growth. Since agriculture contributes about 18 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country and employs about 65 percent of the workforce, it provides enough opportunity for growth.

Keeping the vast untapped potential in the rural areas and in the agriculture sector, the bank will focus on reaching out to people not having access to the banking system, Kumar Ashish, General Manager, Rural Micro Banking and Agricultural Group, ICICI Bank said here.

Talking to the media, Ashish said, phenomenal growth of output in the agriculture sector has taken place due to huge investment made for irrigation facilities. ICICI has tied up with warehouses for providing storage facilities to the farmers for getting higher price for their products.

 

He said, the exposure of the bank in the agriculture, priority sector lending and agri-business including processing was about Rs 30,000 crore in last fiscal. This is expected to grow at least by 20 to 25 percent during the current fiscal. Further, as part of its plan to leverage the technology for enabling the rural people to access the banking system, the bank plans to introduce ‘mobile banking’ in the rural areas.