Second Covid-19 wave: Curbs beyond a month to hurt biz, says MFIN

Lockdowns beyond a month will adversely impact the microfinance institutions (MFIs) as prolonged restrictions on economic activities will hit the livelihood of customers, according to the Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN).

Alok Misra, chief executive of MFIN, said recoveries and collections remained above 90 per cent level in March. After the last year’s lockdown, the activities of MFI clients substa­ntially improved as most of them were engaged in cate­ri­ng to daily needs.

MFIN is an industry association comp­ris­i­ng 58 NBFC-MFIs and 39 asso­ciates, including banks, small finance banks (SFBs) and NBFCs. The current lockdown has created a challenge for those working with MFIs. He said MFIN has asked the Union health ministry to give front­line category status to over 130,000 staff to get vaccination on priority.