Agriculture warehousing firm SLCM Group has disbursed more than Rs 84.80 crore to over 19,000 women entrepreneurs in FY23 through Kissandhan‘s ‘Business Correspondent (BC) Partnership Lending Programme’. The company has onboarded about 10,000 women beneficiaries in the last five months, which not only exhibits a substantial increase in the program’s reach but also indicates the growing scope for women farmers to improve their social and economic stability.

Mr. Sandeep Sabharwal, CEO of SLCM Group, said, “We have observed that women’s participation in the agriculture and allied sectors is still meagre, mainly due to a lack of access to credit and empowerment to establish stability. We also noticed women lack decision-making power despite owning land in their name. Women in agriculture earn only 70% of men’s wages, which strongly indicates gender inequality in this space. The launch of Kissandhan Agri Finance business unit is intended to address this pressing issue and ensure that women in our country lead a socially and financially stable life.”

Mr. Naresh Kumar, Chief Business Officer, Kissandhan, said, “Crossing the milestone of 19,000+ women loan beneficiaries is a proud moment for all of us at SLCM Group. We aim to double this number in the coming times. Kissandhan is our way of recognizing women farmers for the hard work they do for their livelihood. This underlines our commitment to empowering women through access to adequate capital.”

‘Business Correspondents (BCs)” are representatives appointed by banks/financial Institutions who act as their agents and provide financial services in remote locations where banks are not present. The average ticket size of such loans is Rs. 40,000 per borrower. To date, Kissandhan has disbursed loans of more than Rs 2700 crores and impacted about 6 lakh plus farmers, agri traders, agri Processors.

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