Shabda Gyawali's Blog

Recently read a news about how .... " 1,300 chickens and 200 ducks at Manohara Landless Squatters´ Settlement have been destroyed on the suspicion of bird flu.".... These birds were destroyed as per the government decision............ Kudos to rarely experienced proactive effort of the Government of Nepal to tame this dangerous endemic .........In my impact investing mode ,r eading this article few questions and thought came crossed my mind.. 1,300 chickens and 200 ducks had a lot of financial value. What are the implication of destroying the 1500 birds ? These birds might have been the financial asset of many low income people ... Did the Government announced any compensation package to those who suffered the financial loss ? Nepal Insurance Board need to put there act together and promote micro insurance among the low income people. M icro insurance coverage for livestock ( is chicken considered livestoc k) can help low income people to hedge there ri...

In a blog post , Anthony Bugg-Levine and Jed Emerson,the authors of Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money While Making a Difference were quoted - " the sector (Impact investing ) has so far existed almost exclusively in the realms of "the ridiculously rich and the ludicrously large." Family offices, private clients, and pension funds are the ones with the large capital to put to work, perhaps more than the impact sector can even handle for a very long time. So what about retail? While opening up the doorway to retail clients may not hold as much sway in terms of volume of investment capital, taking impact investing retail is important for more than sheer capital reasons. As Bugg-Levine and Emerson say, "it is about creating a more integrated relationship between our assets and our values," and it's about transforming what society values and how we organize our resources to achieve these values. If impact investing remains confined to the upper...

"T he interaction was held by the ministry in association with National Banking Training Institute with an objective of enhancing people’s access to financial service. “Our objective is to enhance common people’s excess to financial services via branchless banking,” said NBTI CEO Sanjib Subba. “Participants discussed creating a common network platform for conducting branchless banking. As it requires a huge investment in technology, the participants focused on finding a way for moving ahead together.” Click here to Read more

According to a study, in Nepal amount of total deposits in financial cooperatives have outgrown the total deposits of all the commercial banks...............Does this mean encourage Financial cooperatives for financial inclusion ???? " मुलुकभर रहेका सहकारीहरूमा सम्पूर्ण ३१ वटा वाणिज्य बैंकभन्दा बढी निक्षेप रहेको सहकारी विभागले गरेको एक अध्ययनले देखाएको छ । विभागले माघमा संकलन गरेको विवरणअनुसार सहकारीको कुल निक्षेप बैंकहरूको भन्दा ३० अर्ब रुपैयाँले बढी छ । वित्तीय सहकारीले गत माघसम्म ६ खर्ब ५० अर्बभन्दा बढी निक्षेप संकलन गरेको तथ्यांक छ । नेपाल राष्ट्र बैंकको पुससम्मको तथ्यांकअनुसार वाणिज्य बैंकहरूमा ६ खर्ब १९ अर्ब रुपैयाँ निक्षेप छ ।" Click here to read more This news forced me to revisit an article I read in Harvard business review - " many innovations that engage the poor have come from players outside the mainstream in their industries. Take the financial sector, for example: Microfinance originated with NGOs, mobile money was developed primarily by telecom comp...

8888 savings and credit cooperatives catalyst for financial inclusion or unregulated loan sharks ?? 66 coffee cooperatives....."Hello Starbucks and whole foods"..great Himalayan coffees for sale .. Click here to read more

Click here to read...

http://ht.wstream.net/banking/100324/live.asx

Expanding physical bank branches to the rural community is not the only option to to achieve financial inclusion.. Why Big business houses shouldn't be commercial bank promoters ... Commercial bank in Nepal should adopt business correspondent style banking method ... Here is a good article on the issues raised above .. Click here to read

fGrowing competition among banks and financial institutions in cities is driving them to seek new pastures in rural areas. With the technology in place to help them expand their business in villages, they are using unconventional methods to lure potential customers. Click here to read

The topic of the week in Kathmandu is financial inclusion and as CGAP’s new Financial Access 2010 report shows, Nepal needs it. Trailing behind all South Asian countries except Afghanistan on the financial inclusion front, Nepal provides 4.19 bank branches for every 100,000 adults. However, Nepal remains vigilant and ready to jump on the financial inclusion train, starting with the opening of 216 commercial bank branches in the last fiscal year. To read More CGAP Financial ACCESS report 2010

Access to credit market and other financial product for low house and small business are very limited in Nepal. Even though , Micro finance institution have played a major role in providing micro credit to the low income household and small business; lack of capital, technology and professionalism have limited the reach of these Micro Finance Institutions and NGOs . Recently, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to allow commercial banks to open a subsidiary micro-credit institution, to provide credit to the low income household. Commercial banks should make a good use of this opportunity and start their own micro credit institution to be the banker to the poor. Micro credit subsidiary of the commercial bank will have the capital ,financial and technical expertise of the their parent company to work efficiently . Given the fragile political condition of Nepal, Commercial banks will be skeptical to built retail brick-and-mortar infrastructure in rural Ne...