PayNearby & Grameen Foundation India team to upskill rural SMEs

By Gloria Mathias

India-based PayNearby has collaborated with the Grameen Foundation for Social Impact (GFSI), a non-profit organisation to upskill business correspondents (BCs) across India and upgrade them to provide digital and financial services beyond cash-in/cash-out to the underserved and tech-shy last mile population.

This will strengthen rural BC counters with long-term viable business solutions and make them sustainable change agents at the grassroots level. The partnership will also work towards providing employment opportunities to the women and youth of India.

This collaboration between PayNearby and GFSI is a strategic step in expanding financial accessibility and a crucial initiative for empowering women within the financial sector. This initiative places a strong emphasis on skill enhancement among BCs and gender sensitivity. The goal is to enlist 15,000 female BC agents, thereby promoting gender inclusivity within this sector.

Under this initiative, GFSI will leverage PayNearby’s Distribution-as-a-Service network and expertise to streamline operations and enable BCs to offer a diverse range of sachetised and tailored digital and financial solutions across domains such as commerce, education, entertainment, credit management, insurance and more.

Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO, PayNearby, said, “In the dynamic landscape of Bharat, achieving mass transformation necessitates mass mobilisation, and the formidable BC network is ideally positioned to embrace this challenge. BCs have been playing a crucial role in bridging the financial and digital gap at the last mile. We are extremely honoured to work with Grameen Foundation for Social Impact to upskill the BC network and make them viable multi-service counters, beyond cash-in/cash-out services.”

Alok Kumar Jha, Chief Strategic Initiatives Officer, PayNearby noted, “We are extremely honoured to be a facilitator for the empowerment of women BCs, who are the drivers of rural progress. This collaboration echoes our commitment towards our Sashakt Naari, Sashakt Samaaj, Sashakt Desh mission. Through this, we aim to not only provide sustainable self-employment to Women BC Sakhis, but also ensure more women from Bharat’s hinterland are brought into the formal financial fold through them, thus bridging the gender gap at the last mile.”