MFI, ICICI Bank loans for 1 mn women

Microcredit Foundation of India, which is running microcredit programme in Tamil Nadu in partnership with ICICI Bank, has fixed a target of providing credit of over Rs1250 crore (Rs 12.5 billion) to one million women by March 2008.

In January 2005, MFI had a membership of 318,908 in 3672 villages with a credit portfolio of over Rs150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion).

"We are targeting to form 97,000 self help groups, which will train and provide credit to one million women, taking the credit portfolio to over Rs 1250 crore by March 2008," chairman of the foundation K M Thiagarajan said.

MFI, a non-profit organisation, is building village communities for people empowerment and managing their resources to build sustainable livelihoods.