Finance minister urges MFAN to reduce interest rate

Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has urged the microfinance companies to reduce the existing interest rate charged for the loans.

Currently, microfinance companies are charging a 10 to 15 percent interest rate in their loan investment.

Receiving a memo from the Microfinance Association of Nepal(MFAN) on Sunday, Minister Sharma said that poor people’s livelihood won’t improve until the microfinance companies that have strong access even in the remote areas reduce their interest rate.

The Finance Minister also expressed his readiness to extend support on behalf of the government to reduce the interest rate released by the microfinance companies while urging the Association’s representatives to submit a plan of action for the same.

However, the members of the Association said that the microfinance companies were not able to reduce the interest rate until the interest rate from the commercial banks is slashed.