Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today launched a historic & path-breaking “AMA Bank” scheme for providing banking services through CSP Plus banking outlets in all unbanked Gram Panchayats of the State.
Today, in the first phase, 750 CSP Plus outlets covering all 30 districts were dedicated to the people of Odisha. Odisha is the first state in the entire country to conceptualise and implement such a holistic scheme for Financial Inclusion.
CM Naveen Patnaik opined that the CSP Plus model innovated by Odisha will become a model for the rest of the country.
Financial inclusion is the foundational premise of social and economic progress and empowerment of people. No country or state can ever attain inclusive growth without achieving financial inclusion for its people. Reaching out to the people at the bottom of the pyramid and delivery of public services to the last mile in a fair and transparent manner has been one of the highest priority agendas of the Government.
However, financial inclusion has remained a challenge as the geographical penetration of banks in the state has been rather dismal. About 65% of our gram panchayats do not have a brick-and-mortar bank branch, leading to severe challenges and difficulties in accessing banking services and availability of Direct Benefit Transfers for a majority of our people in rural Odisha. At the rate at which brick & mortar branches have been set up in the State over the last 5 years, it would take us more than 30 years to provide a brick & mortar branch in every unbanked GP.
Therefore, the Government of Odisha in collaboration with 6 public sector banks namely SBI, PNB, UBI, UCO Bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda has come up with an ambitious and people-centric scheme named “Ama Bank” for providing banking services through CSP Plus banking outlets to every unbanked GP. Ama Bank is a low-cost brick-and-mortar micro bank branch which sits between a BC and a small bank branch and will provide all necessary banking services like deposits, advances, remittances, Loans, Aadhar Enabled Payment System, credit linkage to SHGs, coverage under social security schemes etc.
Besides, Senior citizens, differently-abled people and pregnant women will get doorstep banking services and avail of Direct Benefit Transfers in a timely and hassle-free manner. The poor rural people in Odisha will not have to travel long distances to avail the benefits under several of our schemes, particularly Old Age Pension (OAP), KALIA MAMTA etc or to apply for a small business loan. This will be truly inclusive and empowering for the people of the state.
The scheme will be implemented in a phased manner to cover all 4373 unbanked GPs of the State within the current financial year 2023-24. The government of Odisha is providing rent-free banking space for 5 years. The State Government will also bear one-time expenses for Fixed Costs & Recurring expenses for a period of three years. A provision of Rs. 500 Cr. has been made for this scheme.
