November 30: With an aim of providing easy banking access to the poor and underprivileged communities, Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) and National Co-operative Bank Ltd (NCBL) have signed an agreement on Wednesday, November 30.

As per the agreement, both the organizations will work on poverty alleviation by bringing the population which is below the poverty line to the banking service. The banking service will include deposit, loan, among others.

KB Upreti, managing director of NCBL and Nahakul KC, executive director of PAF signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on behalf of their respective organizations.

Issuing a joint statement, both the organizations said that the agreement will help in the economic development of rural areas by uplifting the living standard of people below poverty line.

Speaking at the program, Nahakul KC said that there are a total of 425 co-operatives under PAF. “These small co-operatives can’t provide loan to the people in big amount. So, the collaboration with NCBL will help those small co-operatives to provide loan support to the people when needed,” he said.

According to the statement, more than 32,000 community-based organizations have been established in 58 districts with the support from PAF. Likewise, PAF also claims that almost a million households have benefitted from different programs of PAF.

Similarly, also speaking at the program, KB Upreti said that the agreement will help the government meet its target of poverty alleviation. He further added, “Now the co-operatives under PAF will provide information regarding the community to NCBL, which will be beneficial for the rural community.”

PAF has invested almost Rs 15 billion to establish 32,099 community organizations, which have benefitted almost a million households directly or indirectly.